Gutted

England 0 Portugal 0 (1-3 on penalties)

Just had to compose myself and wipe away the tears before I made this entry. Before you thought it could get any worse, yes, yet another agonising penalty shoot out.

You have to say it was another mediocre England performance, although when you think about it, we had a lot more shots at goal than Portugal did.

In the 62nd minute Rooney got tangled with a defender and the ref blew for a free kick. After seeing the replay several times, it appeared it was just a straight forward free kick to Portugal, but then Cristiano Ronaldo sticks his oar in and insinuated that Rooney had stamped on the defender's leg. Rooney showed his frustration at this accusation and pushed Ronaldo, but not with any great force. The ref then called him over and amazingly produced the red card! Unbelievable! Then the camera captured Ronaldo winking as if to say 'I sorted it'. What a bastard. Rooney and Ronaldo both play for Manchester Utd so I wonder what the atmosphere will be like at pre-season training?

So it's like deja vu. Two years ago in the Euro Champs, Rooney gets injured and then we end up losing to Portugal on penalties.

To be fair, we played better with 10 men than 11. Aaron Lennon had come on for Becks early in the 2nd half as a result of an injury and again played well. You can honestly say that there were a lot of good performances by individual players again: Hargreaves was a trooper and all the back four were solid. However, we have to play as a unit in order to improve and go further in tournaments.

Even in extra time, we came close a couple times with the ball in the 6 yard box but it just wouldn't go in. Penalties were inevitable. And with our past record, you are already defeated before you've taken them. There was just one ray of hope when Portugal missed two of their penalties levelling it to 1-1 but then it all fell apart once again. England just can't take penalties - we're hopeless. We need some coaching from the Germans.

It's hard to find a positive but I've got to say a big WELL DONE to the English fans out there. They've done us proud with their non-stop singing and chanting, and caused absolutely no trouble. Patriotic and passionate we will always be about our football.

Ok so now we move onto a new era. Sven is no more and Steve McLaren is the new boss. Let's hope he can do a better job.