Hurst: England tried to play like Chelsea

English football pundits Geoff Hurst, Ron Atkinson and Carlton Palmer all conceded Italy were the better side following the Azzurri’s 4-2 quarter-final penalty shoot-out win over England on Sunday. After a goalless 120 minutes of normal and extra time in Kiev, Riccardo Montolivo hit Italy’s second penalty wide to hand England hope of booking a semi-final against Germany. But misses by Ashleys Young and Cole gifted the Italians victory instead — a result that was fair, according to the experts. Speaking on the sidelines of the Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel’s Fanzone in Dubai, 1966 World Cup-winner Hurst said: “Over two hours Italy were the better team. England tried to play like Chelsea did against Barcelona by defending for 90 minutes and trying to nick something. “In the last half-hour it felt as though Italy couldn’t hurt us and I thought we could have won it. It would have been a great win for us, against the odds. But the best team on the day was Italy and you can’t deny them that.“Ashley Cole tried to side-foot his penalty into the corner. It was a bad penalty. Gareth Southgate did that in Euro 96. You don’t take penalties like that. You have to get your foot behind the ball, get it between the keeper and the post and whack it.” Former Manchester United manager Atkinson said: “We didn’t deserve anything. We’ve had a lot of luck over the tournament but we ran out of fortune. The better side won. “I wasn’t very happy with the performance. We looked sluggish. For whatever reason [Wayne] Rooney didn’t perform and [Andy] Carroll and [Theo] Walcott made no impact. It was left to the back four — [John] Terry and [Joleon] Lescott — to help us see it through and dig it out. That didn’t happen and I thought we were lucky to go to penalties in the end.” ‘Nobody expected this’ Former England midfielder Palmer said: “If someone had said before the tournament that England would make the quarters, you would have taken it. I didn’t think they’d get out the group but they topped it. “I would have liked to have seen more offensive players on from the start like Carroll, Walcott or [Alex] Oxlade-Chamberlain. But we can all criticise. Nobody expected this with a load of injuries, problems and Rooney’s suspension, so we can’t knock [manager] Roy Hodgson. “England will get a lot of criticism, but at the end of the day we’ve surpassed the likes of Holland, Czech Republic and France, all better teams, all fancied by the bookies more than England. “Penalties are a lottery, but the best side has gone through and that’s the way it should be.”from gulfnews.com