WORLD CUP 2014
Preview - Groups A-D - Groups E-H - Results
Costa Rica 0
England 0
Costa Rica Navas - Gamboa, Duarte, Gonzalez, Miller, Diaz - Ruiz, Borges (Barrantes 78), Tejeda - Brenes (Bolanos 59), Campbell (Urena 65) Booked Gonzalez
England Foster - Jones, Cahill, Smalling, Shaw - Milner (Rooney 76), Lampard(c), Wilshere (Gerrard 73), Barkley, Lallana (Sterling 62) - Sturridge Booked Barkley, Lallana
Attendance tbc at Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte Referee Djamel Haimoudi (Algeria)
Kick-off 5pm BST. Live on ITV1.
ENGLAND limped out of the World Cup after a drab 0-0 draw against surprise Group D winners Costa Rica in Belo Horizonte yesterday.
The lifeless stalemate meant the Three Lions finally picked up a point from this miserable campaign - but the result also consigned them to bottom place in a World Cup group for the first time ever.
Heading into the match, coach Roy Hodgson had rung the changes with only Gary Cahill and Daniel Sturridge surviving from the team who started in the desperate defeat to Uruguay.
In came West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster - and three of the back four were changed with appearances for Phil Jones at right-back, Chris Smalling at centre-back, and 18-year-old left-back Luke Shaw.
In midfield, skipper Frank Lampard and James Milner provided experience alongside Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley and Adam Lallana. Sturridge was up front on his own.
The fact that this was a dead-rubber quickly showed with almost no edge-of-the-seat action in the first 20 minutes, save for a couple of Sturridge shots which blazed wide.
A self-depreciating chant of "England's coming home" rang around the stadium, and Hodgson's men began slowly against the neater, more confident Costa Ricans.
Indeed, Los Ticos had the best chance of the first half when Foster tipped Celso Borges' free-kick onto the bar - though, shortly after, Sturridge went down with a half-decent shout for a penalty.
Considering Diego Godin escaped a sending off in Uruguay game, a very generous assessment of England's campaign would suggest that they have not had too much luck.
But surely a more pertinent perspective is that the Three Lions' freshened up attack has struggled to create too many match-winning chances since the encouraging opener against Italy.
In fact, the first shot on target against Costa Rica came from substitute Wayne Rooney in the 80th minute - and England's overall total of two goals from three games is their lowest at a major finals since Euro 92.
Of course, this - together with a lack of adherence to the basic principles of defending in the first two matches - meant it was only ever going to end one way for England.
Nevertheless, perhaps due to a lack of alternatives, 66-year-old Hodgson has been given a clear go-ahead to continue leading the team into Euro 2016.
As pointed out by the BBC, though, there is much work to be done, and it most likely something which will take longer than just two years to get fully sorted out.
Indeed, if the FA finally actually wants to do some much-needed rebuilding of the team among the younger players, maybe a younger man - like current coach Gary Neville - would be a better candidate.
Naturally, it would be a risk - Neville has not coached anywhere previously - but then neither had Jurgen Klinsmann before he rebuilt the German national team ahead of the 2006 World Cup.
Neville does at least have all of his coaching badges and, more importantly, he has already proven demonstrably to be a student of the game.
The former England full-back also provided one of the few positive images of this World Cup for England when he briefly entered the field of play to congratulate Rooney on his equaliser against Uruguay.
But, sadly for England, that brief moment of hope was just about it.
In this memorable tournament so far, there were not many other memories for the Three Lions to take home. Not unless you count the all-too-familiar pain of defeat.
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