World Cup 2014: Fallible England exposed and out

WORLD CUP 2014

Preview - Groups A-D - Groups E-H - Results
England v Italy - England v Uruguay - England v Costa Rica

Uruguay 2 Suarez 39, 84
England 1 Rooney 75

Uruguay Muslera - Gimenez, Godin, Caceres, Pereira - Lodeiro (Stuani 67), Gonzalez (Fucile 78), Arevalo Rios, Rodriguez - Cavani, Suarez (Coates 88) Booked Godin
England Hart - Baines, Cahill, Jagielka, Johnson - Gerrard, Henderson (Lambert 87) - Sterling (Barkley 64), Rooney, Welbeck (Lallana 71) - Sturridge Booked Gerrard
Attendance 62,575 at Arena de São Paulo Referee Carlos Velasco Carballo (Spain)
Kick-off 8pm BST. Live on ITV1.

ENGLAND made their earliest exit at a World Cup finals since 1958 after going down to a second 2-1 defeat, this time to Uruguay.

That result, coupled with Costa Rica's shock win over Italy this afternoon, has left the Three Lions bottom of Group D with two defeats out of two for the first time ever in World Cup history.

It was the familiar face of Luis Suarez who did the damage in Sao Paulo with a goal towards the end of both halves.

And so, ultimately, it really did not matter whether he was fully fit or not - the Liverpool man did not need to be, such was the sheer simplicity of his goals.

Both teams came into the match on the back of a loss in their opener, and it clearly showed in a nervy start.

Uruguay centre-back Diego Godin picked up an early booking for handball before Wayne Rooney sent the free-kick narrowly wide.

At the other end, Phil Jagielka horribly miscued a clearance and presented a good chance to Cristian Rodriguez - but then Godin was lucky to escape a second booking for a forearm smash on Daniel Sturridge.

Rooney went close again, hitting the post with a header - but, just a few minutes later, England were behind.

Captain Steven Gerrard lost the ball cheaply in midfield, as he did all night, before Edinson Cavani's cross eluded Gary Cahill and left Suarez to head past Joe Hart into the corner.

At the start of the second half, it could have got even worse as the English defence only just withstood a barrage of shots from the Uruguayans, with Cavani sliding the best chance wide.

But, gradually, as the half wore on, England began to get their foot on the ball without looking overly creative.

Indeed, the equaliser came rather out of the blue as right-back Glen Johnson escaped his marker and slid the ball across to the unmarked Rooney for a tap-in.

Could England complete the comeback - or should they just settle for a point and take it to the last game against Costa Rica?

Ultimately, neither happened - as, within 10 minutes of restoring parity, England were behind again, a long punt from Uruguay keeper Fernando Muslera being headed mistakenly behind by Gerrard.

Or, rather, we can only assume it was a mistake given that it landed perfectly for his Reds team-mate Suarez who finished with aplomb.

The last few minutes of the match saw England huff and puff without managing a single clear-cut effort - and so the fate of Roy Hodgson's men was left in the hands of the unreliable Italians.

Defeat for the Azzurri today against the impressive Group D leaders Costa Rica means England will be back in departures on an early flight home.

Meanwhile, also already heading for the airport are 2010 champions Spain following their dreadful defence of their title.

Still shell-shocked following their 5-1 defeat to Netherlands last Friday, La Roja found themselves 2-0 down to a hard-working and inventive Chile side at half time.

And, with no comeback in the second half, the Spanish thus became the fifth defending world champions - after Italy in 1950, Brazil in 1966, France in 2002, and Italy again in 2010 - to exit at the earliest possible stage of the following World Cup.

Chile's win in the Maracana also eliminated Australia - but the Socceroos can at least leave this tournament with their heads held high, given the difficulty of their group and the way they have gone about their task.

Indeed, the Aussies went toe-to-toe with the Dutch in their second match, and even took a 2-1 lead before going down fighting, though only in the figurative sense of course.

Amid an actual incident of fisticuffs, the fourth team so far to have exited at this early stage was Cameroon.

In a bizarre moment, Benoit Assou-Ekotto landed a headbutt on team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo as the Indomitable Lions proved anything like their nickname in going down to a 4-0 defeat to Croatia.

Sadly, this sort of loss does nothing to challenge the stereotypes about African football - their poor discipline and their naivety in defence badly letting them down.

In fact, the Cameroonians are now on a horrid streak of six successive World Cup finals losses, dating back to 2002. Hosts Brazil are next on their fixture list.

Not that the Brazilians have had it all their own way. Fortunate in their first match against Croatia, Luis Felipe Scolari's side were then held to a 0-0 draw against Mexico in their second game.

But this was a rare goalless contest in a World Cup which has continued to excite and fascinate.

In the lower half of the draw, France in Group E, Argentina in Group F, Germany in Group G and Belgium in Group H have all got off to winning starts.

Argentine talisman Lionel Messi scored his first World Cup goal since 2006 after a sublime one-two with Gonzalo Higuain, while Thomas Muller went top of the scoring charts with a hat-trick for Germany against ten-men Portugal.

The Belgians, meanwhile, returned to World Cup action for the first time in 12 years - but required stunning comeback goals from Marouane Fellani and Dries Mertens to overturn Algeria's surprise lead.

In a testament to this delightful tournament, though, the Diables Rouges' win was, in fact, the sixth comeback of the tournament following similar turnarounds by Brazil, Netherlands, Ivory Coast, Costa Rica and Switzerland.

But, England - who actually did the hard work of getting level in both of their matches - could not join this list... and, realistically, never looked like doing so.

It leaves the Three Lions playing for pride only in their third group match for the first time ever. Let us hope they have some.

ENGLAND AT THE WORLD CUP
1930-1938 Did not enter
1950 Group stage
1954 Quarter finals
1958 Group stage
1962 Quarter finals
1966 Champions
1970 Quarter finals
1974-1978 Did not qualify
1982 Second group stage
1986 Quarter finals
1990 Semi finals
1994 Did not qualify
1998 Last 16
2002 Quarter finals
2006 Quarter finals
2010 Last 16
2014 Group stage