So England have not only qualified for the Quarter-finals, but have done so as Group Winners. Cue mass celebration and a surge of optimism. Well not quite, after the composed passivity of the first match, we had the frenzied victory over the Swedish, but the Ukraine game saw England falling back to some bad old ways. The familiar pattern of conceding possession regularly, not exercising any control and always seeming to be on the verge of something going wrong, returned with a vengeance.
Ukraine dominated the first half and aside from the 'ghost goal' really deserved at least a draw. But the biggest problem is that Ukraine are a limited team, especially with Shevchenko on the sidelines and to be dominated in this way by a second rate side is worrying. They created a raft of chances which they spurned through a combination of naivety and lack of ability. Even after taking the lead, at no stage did England look comfortable and this does not augur well for the latter stages of the tournament.
The victory was more to do with team spirit, hanging on in there at times with some last ditch defending, than any grand design. So as the momentum grows behind England's campaign (this impetus will undoubtedly reach fever pitch in the run-up to the Quarter-Final with Italy), my heart sinks and I fear the worst. When facing a team of experience and stature such as Italy, England will be exposed as limited and overrated.
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