Palmer cameo a chink of light amid England gloom

COLOGNE, Germany : As the final whistle sounded in Cologne, half the fans of the England team who topped their Euro 2024 group on five points had already left, while those backing the Slovenia side who scraped through in third were going ballistic along with their players.

Welcome to the world of England football, where a win and two draws and "controlling our own destiny", according to proud captain Harry Kane, drew jeers and boos as the players went through a somewhat desultory "lap of honour" - making sure they stayed out of range of a handful of plastic beer glasses lobbed their way by disgruntled fans.

Meanwhile, Slovenia's players and supporters wildly celebrated going through to the knockout stage of a major tournament for the first time, finishing level on points, goals and goals scored with Denmark in Group C after holding England to a 0-0 draw, but safe as one of the best third-placed teams.

England were already guaranteed progress but delivered another laboured display, barely troubling Slovenia goalkeeper Jan Oblak all night.

England, with some of the best players in the best teams in the strongest leagues in the world, struggled to string three passes together in another joyless, sluggish display as they finished their three games against considerably lower ranked opponents with a tally of two goals.

They might point to the likes of the Netherlands, Italy, France and Belgium, who have also had problems getting past so-called lesser teams, but none of those "Big Guns" have looked so consistently flat and disjointed.

Summing up a forgettable group stage was the fact that Cole Palmer, thrown on as a late substitute, was probably England's best attacking force across three games, despite playing only 20 minutes.

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