Venables praises players and fans

FOR Terry Venables, whose, stock has soared with the manner he has groomed this English side into arguably the most progressive team in the competition, the end when it came was particularly sudden.

At a stroke his managerial reign was over and thoughts as to what he might have gone on to achieve after just two years in the job will remain mere speculation.

He carried it all off with his customary cheeky cockney grin.

I think they (the players) should be very proud of themselves. Of course I would also like to thank the supporters publicly on behalf of the players for the way they have supported us every inch of the way.

"It's a shame not to have got to a final. We tried as hard as we could. They moved us around a bit in the first 10 or 15 minutes but our performance in the second half was excellent. Really, we had enough chances to win it, in extra time but it wasn't to be."

Stuart Pearce, recalling his own miss in the penalty shoot out with the Germans in Turin six years ago, had been first to console Gareth Southgate. "It will stick with him and he can't do any thing about it. But knowing his personality he'll come back and he'll be stronger for it."

Surprisingly, Southgate presented himself once more to the assembled media afterwards. "I'm stunned. I had been very confident when I went up to take the penalty and naturally I'm disappointed. What was a great tournament for the country has ended with me missing a penalty," he said, his voice briefly breaking.

Speaking through an interpreter, the German manager Bertie Vogts hailed his own team's resilience and resourcefulness. "First of all I would like to express my congratulations to my own team. Rarely have I seen such a strong English team. They were very good."

Even by the Germans' normally methodical standards of preparation, it was extraordinary to here the German keeper Andreas Kopke reveal that their back up staff had studied the methods of all the English penalty takers with advice on which side they normally preferred.

"Amazingly," added Kopke, none of the first four took his usual corner."