You don't need to feel sorry for Germany. They have a young progressive team who are going places in the future. It's England we need to feel sorry for.

hi folks
now back in circulation after a holiday. saw all the matches that mattered on big screen in various places. England did well. Coach Roy had them well organised and because of him we remained in contention. We struggled against France, Sweden, Ukraine and Italy but we did not lose any of these matches. Not bad!If Italy win the whole thing then we only lost on pens to the winner--not bad!
In Roy we have a manager who will get the best out of our lot. Roy is good at languages.He needs to learn Scottish to sort out Rooney. And we need a playmaker, maybe 2 or 3. Scholes would have been ideal
We have potentially a very good goalie, good defenders, very fit midfielders and potentially lively forwards.Coach Roy will deliver!
Arise Sir Roy!

No team can go from as poor as England offered to a place in the elite as quickly as you seem to believe.
We only remained undefeated because we were set up not to lose. We were set up that way because there is a dearth of English talent in the country and no glossing over will improve that...it was parasitical football which no major football nation should be proud of.
Hodgson will improve us to a degree on the organisation side but until we learn lessons from better sides in respect of patience and passing other than in straight lines we will remain poor.

I feel sorry for Germany becasue I had them in the sweepstake at work.

No. I thought they were completely outplayed by Italy. Probably more outplayed than England were.

It's true that throughout the competition as a whole Germany have looked a much better side than England and I was almost glad we lost to Italy so we didn't have to face a possible humiliation at their hands (or feet!). However, against Italy they were a bit of a shambles. England didn't offer much going forward, but never looked as though the the roof was going to collapse, whereas at times Germany looked as though they might be on the end of a real hiding.

Perhaps Germany aren't quite as good as we thought they were, and perhaps England aren't quite as bad as we thought they were.

At least England played some kids gaining some valuable experience.
Italy have an old team with only 1 player out of the 15 man squad who is under 24.
They also have nothing in the pipeline they didn't even qualify for the 2011 under 21 tournament.