Top Ten Heartbreaking England Exits

[notsosilentbob]

1. Germany 1996
Heartbreak is one thing. But losing on home soil perhaps made the Euro 96 semi-final exit the bitterest pill for England fans to swallow. Just as Frank Skinner and David Baddiel launched the soundtrack for the tournament with 'Three Lions' their vacant expressions as the cameras panned to them at the end of the game summed up the numb emptiness felt by all English fans at this point - and gave Scottish supporters a moment to savour.

2. West Germany 1990
With a fairly average Argentina side to face in the final, it felt like the winner of this match would win the World Cup. Though Germany played far better than England during the tournament, they did not in this game, with Bodo Illgner producing superb stops from Paul Gascoigne and Chris Waddle, who also hit the post before he blazed over the final penalty in the shoot out.

3. West Germany 1970
Although England had already been beaten by Brazil in the group stages, the defending champions were confident of at least reaching the final. Defeat to Brazil's total football side would have been taken with good grace but going out after being two goals up against West Germany with the subplot of Bobby Charlton's early substitution was as difficult to stomach as Gordon Banks' meal the night before.

4. Poland 1973
The end of an era of English football as unthinkably Sir Alf Ramsey's side drew 1-1 at home to the East European side and did not qualify for the World Cup. Only Allan Clarke's spot kick could beat Jan Tomaszewski, who Brian Clough had labelled a clown before the game. Though the Poles were hugely underestimated (as their third place position in the following tournament attests), at the time it seemed a nadir for English football.

5. Argentina 1986
Even without the 'Hand of God' incident, it is difficult to make a case that England would have beaten Argentina on this day. That said when an illegal goal stands as the difference between the sides on the scoresheet, a real sense of injustice is understandable.

6. Argentina 1998
Could this England team have won the World Cup? Defeat to Romania in the group stages suggests not, but with the young flair of Michael Owen, David Beckham and Paul Scholes allied to the world class spine of David Seaman, Tony Adams, Paul Ince and Alan Shearer, it felt possible at the time, which is why this exit on penalties hurt more than subsequent knockouts.

7. Holland 1993
The television documentary 'The Impossible Job' helped us see the funny side of this defeat with Graham Taylor's "Do I not like that", Lawrie McMenemy's very delayed reaction to the Platt/Koeman incident ("he hasn't even given a penalty") and Phil Neal's sterling moral support ("good decision boss, bold decision boss"). However, the fact that it all but meant England had failed to qualify for a World Cup for the first time in a generation did sting on the night.

8. USA 1950
Three years before England beat a Rest of Europe XI 6-1. Three years later they lost to Hungary at Wembley 6-3. In between was this freak 1-0 defeat courtesy of Joe Gaetjens' strike for the United States in Belo Horizonte. This is not ranked higher simply because news of the result did not reach our shores for some time after the result - and even then some newspapers published the scoreline the other way round in disbelief at such an occurrence.

9. Spain 1982
With Brazil having been knocked out earlier in the day, England had no one to fear if they could score twice past Spain and reach the semis. With Northern Ireland having beaten the hosts earlier in the tournament this did not seem too much of an ask either. Despite the return of Trevor Brooking and Kevin Keegan in the second half, they could not get on the scoresheet though and their World Cup dreams were in ruins.

10. Portugal 2004
The successive penalty shoot-out defeats to Portugal blur together in the mind. The first one hurt more simply because by the time of the second one, not even the most optimistic Englishmen thought we had a chance of winning.

[Source - sky sports news]

[Detomah]

Of all the exits and although the 1996 one and the Maradonna Hand of God exits still sit fresh in the mind for me and most of us still hate Argentina and our arch enemies Germany as a consequence, the 1998 exit seemed to hurt me more than any other at the time, because at the time, I think everyone actually thought we stood a bloody good chance of winning that time. Alan Shearer and Michael Owen seemed unstoppable in the run up to it and it just hurt like hell when we went out.

Of course Portugal have a special place in hell as far as i'm concerned and how Wayne Rooney can play in the same team as Ronaldo without wanting to cave his skull in every time he sees him is beyond me.

The first one I can personally remember as hurting badly for me was the 1982 one though, I was just at the age where I was starting to consciously get into football at the time and with some of the massive named players we had like Shilton, Butcher, Hoddle, Francis and Keegan (god he's been resigned as Newcastle manager this afternoon) in the squad, they were like gods to me at the time and getting beat was unacceptable to me, as Gods are supposed to be infallable.