I'm proud of the England team. [I Love Real Football]

It hurts but then sh++ happens in life and there are a lot more important things than football.

You can blame the players who missed penalties though you shouldn't. You can blame Southgate for making some wrong calls but that is not the point because the big picture says we did pretty well.

What would you rather have?

Maybe you want an England team that loses 4-1 to an unheralded Germany team? Maybe a team that finishes below Uruguay and Costa Rica in a WC group? In the last Euros, we got knocked out in the quarter finals by Iceland.

The players and the management of this team made tremendous progress. We did better than Germany, France, Belgium and other great powers.

We've got the final and lost by the narrowest possible margin against a strong Italy team at the peak of its powers. The result could very easily have gone the other way too. To be serious contenders means to risk getting hurt. Its better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

The performance of the England team was strong and its a young team. Well done for raising the level and for competing so well.

Until next time.

Burnley123