Pearce critical about England's performance in Under-21 Championship

Stuart Pearce has openly stated that he believes England deserved to be knocked out of the European Under-21 Championship after being defeated by Norway 3-1 in Israel.

Pearce came down heavily on his team as goals from Fredrik Semb Berge, Jo Inge Berget and Magnus Eikrem delivered the final blow that knocked them out with one group game left.

The match with Norway was supposed to be their saving grace after the disastrous defeat at the hands of the Italians in the opening group game of the tournament.

But after the poor performance they put up in front of England manager, Roy Hodgson, they will have to go back home following Tuesday’s third and final group game against hosts Israel.

Given the fact that they had beat Netherlands twice at the qualification stage, their recent showings in the Under-21 Championships haven’t sat too well both with their manager.

“We have got nothing out of this tournament so far and now we have to concentrate on doing things properly for the tournament’s sake and beat Israel,” Pearce said.

“We’re disappointed for varying reasons and we will have a look at that over the next couple of days. But over the two games we didn’t perform consistently enough.”

Pearce chalked up the loss to a number of reasons. “The suspensions and injuries to a couple of our players for the first game didn’t help and we never got any rhythm from the Italian game,” he added.

In spite of his team putting on a below-par performance at the tournament, with less than a month left on his contract, Pearce is keen to carry on as the coach and is planning on holding talks with the FA regarding an extension.