So no more England at Euro 2012. This tournament must somehow cope without the team that brought the continent an unwelcome dose of over-defensive football and gave lessons in how not to keep possession.

England’s exit came down to penalties against Italy, but in truth it could have been over long before one-time West Ham flop Alessandro Diamanti beat Joe Hart from 12 yards in the early hours of Monday here in the UAE. Mario Balotelli, Daniele De Rossi and Riccardo Montolivo all missed glorious chances to wrap it up early, but their close-range failures ensured the quarter-final went the distance and Italy will now be at a serious disadvantage when taking on Germany on Thursday given that they went through the physically and mentally draining experience of extra time and penalties a full 48 hours after Germany’s last-eight romp against Greece.

England, meanwhile, had just one clear-cut opportunity in the entire two hours of action, and that too inside the first five minutes, when right-back Glen Johnson was denied by Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon. For 20 or so minutes in that first half in Kiev, England played very well, producing their best football of the tournament. But it didn’t last, with Wayne Rooney fading away, James Milner being pinned back and Ashley Young disappointing again. The team deserves credit for topping a tricky group, and at least they were better than the Netherlands and France, but they were well short of the impressive standards Italy set, never mind what would have happened if they’d played Germany or Spain.

So now Euro 2012 is at the semi-finals stage and both Portugal vs Spain on Wednesday and Germany vs Italy on Thursday promise much. Hopefully they will ignite what has been a disappointing tournament so far.

One-man-team Portugal in particular can make the last-four stage exciting. If they can get the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo in advanced positions, he is sure to do some damage to a Spain team missing their invincible qualities of Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010. Spain’s weakest players are the two full-backs and if anyone can exploit that it’s Ronaldo, although he will need to keep his ego in check and at least occasionally pass to a team-mate when they’re in a better position.

While Italy were impressive against England, it’s likely that match will be the highlight of their tournament as Germany should have more than enough class and firepower to book their second successive European Championship final appearance. This time though, expect them to go one better than they did in 2008.