Silver lining as England crash out

England's defeat to Croatia means fans will be spared the pain of a quarter final defeat on penalties at next year's European Championships. It had been widely anticipated that England would stutter through the group stages of the competition before coming up against the pre-tournament favourites in the quarter finals. England fan Brian Hill is happy with last night's result. "The team would have at last played to their potential, one of our players would have been unluckily sent off, the remaining players would have heroically almost snatched a winner at the end of extra time, before the game went to penalties and an inevitable exit for England. Everyone would have been saying we'd have won the whole competition if only we had got through that penalty shootout. Thank god we don't have to go through that routine again."