Czech Republic U21s 2 England U21s 1

Distraught: England captain Phil Jones trudges off as the Czech Republic celebrate

England crashed out of these championships in agonising fashion following the concession of two late goals that ensured the Czech Republic progress to a semi-final date with Switzerland on Wednesday evening and the Three Lions head home.

England took the lead through a fine headed goal from Danny Welbeck in the 76th minute, scoring his second of these championships, and the Three Lions looked set to go through at the expense of their opponents.

However, England were undone when Jan Chramosta prodded home on the edge of the six-yard box to equalize for the Czechs in the 89th minute.

Tomáš Pekhart sealed England's fate with a simple tap in following a counter-attacking move after Stuart Pearce's men had piled forward, leaving them exposed at the back.

Pearce, who has been surprisingly awarded a two year extension to his contract, said: "We probably felt we played better in this game than we did in the previous two games. Once you get your noses in front you hope to see it out but we were not dogged enough. Credit to the Czechs, they've shown great quality."

Although Pearce had a point, they did play much better in this match than the two matches that preceded it, England did not do enough throughout this tournament to be worthy semi-finalists, scoring just two goals in three matches.

Some positives can be taken, not least the form of Jones and Smalling at the back who seem to have built up a decent understanding and could be the central defensive partnership for many years to come, both at club and international level.

But this tournament will be littered with disappointment. New Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson looked out of his depth. Living up to the billing that Harry Redknapp gave him with his thinly veiled comment last week of "some footballers are going for 20 million quid who are not fit to lace Luka Modric's boots".

And Pearce himself didn't look entirely comfortable as he sought to fix England's on field problems, even receiving some words of advice from Fabio Capello following last week's draw with Spain. Tactically he was caught out and relieving Michael Mancienne of first team duties for the last game was too little, too late.

England U21s 0 Ukraine U21s 0

England struggle once again and will have to beat the much fancied Czech Republic in their last game to ensure progress to the semi-finals.

Under pressure: Pearce knows England must improve

If it is a pre-requisite to play bland football and frustrate the watching audience with tepid performances at major championships in order to progress to the full squad, then this current batch, coach Stuart Pearce included, have passed their audition with flying colours.

There were even fewer positives to take from this game than the 1-1 draw against Spain. Even Phil Jones looked susceptible to the occasional lapse that had apparently deterred Manchester City from bidding for the 19 year old defender, prior to his £16.5 million move to rivals Manchester United.

Goalkeeper Frankie Fielding saved Jones' blushes by blocking Roman Zozulya's effort from just eight yards out with the centre-back floundering.


England only stepped up a gear in the final ten minutes. Daniel Sturridge forcing Anton Kanibolitskiy into a smart save from long distance and striker Danny Welbeck nodding straight at the keeper from the resulting corner. But it was all too little, too late.

Too often England struggled in the final third and, as a result, rarely threatened. Indeed, the nearest Pearce's side came to opening the scoring was via a 35 yard screamer from Chelsea striker Sturridge that rebounded back off the cross bar towards the end of the first half. Any nearer the Ukranian box and England seemed to run out of ideas.

To be fair, Sturridge and Arsenal's Henri Lansbury could possibly be exempt from criticism. Welbeck, however, was listless and spurned his best opportunity in the 54th minute when through on goal. Sir Alex Ferguson seems to be quite active in the transfer market this summer and it remains to be seen who will be shipped out of Old Trafford. If Welbeck performs like this in the red shirt of Manchester then it won't be long before he's shown the door.

England's championship hopes are hanging by a thread.

Nevertheless, the Czechs looked particularly vulnerable in their 2-0 defeat to tournament favourites Spain earlier today but they are fully aware that a point against England will probably be enough for them to progress to next week's semi-final. And if the English serve up more dross like this then they will surely get the draw they require.