Pearce to stay on for two more years

Coach Stuart Pearce, who it was revealed signed a new two year-deal to lead the team until the next Under-21 European Championships, said he would take his time to analyse the team's failing.

"It is down to me sit back and let the dust settle on this tournament and work out how to improve at this level,'' he said.

"We have to look at all the reasons for the defeat when the tournament has finished.

"I said at the start that it would take 23 players to win it and I stand by that.

"Hats off to the Germans, they beat us 4-0. You have to be humble but it still hurts me.''

Half of the squad Pearce took to Sweden will be available to him during their next qualification campaign and the former Manchester City boss believes the 'hurt' of the loss will help inspire them to go one better.

"Half of this group can go on again so we have to learn from this and improve for next time,'' he said.

"As a learning curve for young players this has been a fantastic tournament. Win or lose it was irrelevant this was a good learning curve for them.

"They now have to stick together and be humble. They have to support each other and say the right things.

"I think they will go back to their clubs as better players than when they joined us three weeks ago.

"For those other players that can play again in two years hopefully that hurt will stay with them like it did with me when I pulled on an England shirt.

"I hope it stays with them for two years.''

Captain Mark Noble cut a distraught figure after the game as he struggled to come to terms with the defeat.

Asked what went wrong, he replied: "I don't know. We started well, we started sharply. Obviously it was a setback with their goal and that was terrible for us.

"I'm just gutted for ourselves and for England. I thought we'd be bringing home the trophy.

"Today we thought we could go out and win game and obviously that didn't happen. We're gutted, terribly gutted.''

England Under-21 winger James Milner admitted tonight's performance was "not good enough''.

"The obvious thing is we didn't perform - lots of possession but we didn't break them down,'' Milner told Sky Sports.

"The way we qualified for the tournament and then played here showed what a good team we are.

"But it's all about big games and we didn't perform. Losing's bad enough but way we lost was not good enough.''

He added: "I think were the best team in this competition but you've got to prove it and we didn't.''