England, Israel heading out of Euro Under-21 championship

England was eliminated from the European Under-21 Championship in Israel on Saturday night — the first team to go out of the eight-country tournament.

Israel was also heading out of the tournament, after going down comprehensively later Saturday to the excellent Italians, 4-0, in Petah Tikva. Having tied 2-2 with Norway on Wednesday, Israel could only go through now in the improbable event of both Italy beating Norway and Israel beating England by substantial margins in Tuesday’s final group games. “We’ll give it the maximum” against England, Israeli coach Guy Luzon promised, however unlikely the prospect of success.

The gulf in quality between the Israeli hosts and the Italians was evident throughout the game — reflecting the fact that, at senior level, Italy is one of the world’s most consistently successful teams while Israel struggles to hold its own on the international stage.

Israel did manage occasional attempts at goal, but never troubled the Italians. Some Israeli fans were good-naturedly waving white handkerchiefs in surrender long before the final whistle.

Israel opened the match in reasonable style, but looked increasingly outclassed as the game progressed, and were hindered by a sending off, and by Italy’s clearly better fitness.

Israel’s coach Luzon said the unjustifiable sending-off, three-quarters of the way through the first half, changed the course of the game. “We didn’t fall apart,” he said. “I’m proud of the team… The referee harmed the game.”

The Italian team, wearing black arm bands to honor an Italian soldier killed in Afghanistan, absorbed strong Israeli pressure in the first 10 minutes of the match — passion and determination that had been missing from Israel’s first game, against the Norwegians. Israel had several chances, but couldn’t convert any of them.

Then, in the 18th minute, attacking midfielder Riccardo Saponara put Italy ahead after an excellent one-touch assist by striker Ciro Immobile. Moments later, Israeli forward Alon Turgeman had an open shot at goal but completely missed, to the crowd’s disgust.

In the 36th minute, Eyal Golasa made two very dangerous tackles. The first took Lorenzo Insigne out of the match, and the second, on Marco Verratti, brought the red card. Barely five minutes later, Italy capitalized on the extra man, with striker Manolo Gabbiadini scoring for 2-0, putting the game out of reach. Two more goals followed in the second half.

Stuart Pearce’s England team lost 3-1 to Norway at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, having been defeated in its first game in the tournament to Italy, 1-0, on Wednesday night.

England was thoroughly outplayed by the skilled, exciting Norwegian team, which scored twice in the first half — in the 15th and 34th minutes — and went 3-0 up in the 51st, before England pulled back a consolation goal in the 57th minute.

Israeli commentators speculated that the future of much-liked coach Pearce, who has led England into four successive Under-21 tournaments, might now be in doubt, although his squad was badly affected by the absence of numerous key players.

England had played very poorly, by Pearce’s own admission, against Italy, but were even worse on Saturday night against a bright, confident Norway. England had been quietly confident going into the game, having won its five most recent matches against Norway at this level. But the team defended poorly in the first half, and couldn’t recover in the second.

A disappointed Pearce said after the game that “The teams that come with their strongest players and senior internationals to tournaments win” — a reference to the dozen or so young stars he would have brought in his squad if they hadn’t been allocated to the senior team or made unavailable by their clubs. He reiterated that he wanted to stay on in a job he said he enjoys, but said there would lessons to learn, and conversations to have with the Football Association, when the squad got home.

The two top teams in each of the two groups proceed to the tournament’s semi-finals. The final Group A games — Israel-England and Italy-Norway — will be played on Tuesday.

On Sunday night, Group B will see its second fixtures. The first match will feature the Netherlands, coming off its win against powerhouse Germany, versus Russia, searching for its first points. The late-night match, which could be the pick of the group games, sees 2011 European U-21 champions Spain play a German team that must get points in order to have a chance to advance to the semis.