(CNN) -- The final two teams left standing at Euro 2012 should come as no surprise, and nor should another painful exit for perennial underachievers England. A heart-breaking defeat on penalties in their quarterfinal was preceded by 120 minutes which saw the style of finalists Italy overwhelm English pragmatism and conquer their heart-on-sleeve spirit. So why does England continue to employ this bulldog style? And why can't the country who gave birth to the game reinvent itself like the all-conquering Spain team, who will be gunning for a third consecutive major title against Italy in Kiev on Sunday, or the dynamic Germans, young pretenders who fell at the semifinal stage?
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Perennial underachievers England last won a major international tournament in 1966
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Journalists, pundits, players and managers put forward their blueprint for a bright new future
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England blocked the most shots on goal and made the most tackles while at Euro 2012
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Over the last decade both Spain and Germany have reinvented the way their national teams play
Italy
For him, the attritional modus operandi showcased by England during Sunday's morale-sapping defeat to a far more fluent @placeholder side shows the national game is still weighed down by this regressive approach.
English
"The idea the game is all about skill and you express your manliness not by fighting but by your skill in being able to do very delicate things -- that affronts something deep in the @placeholder male psyche and I don't see any change to it."
English
The tabloids talk about our players as soldiers, so the values that are very highly praised in @placeholder football are bravery, passion, obedience, hard work and you don't tend to hear that much talk about creativity and inspiration, which are not soldierly virtues."
English
"If @placeholder clubs team were good enough to play the way Spain do -- get a one goal lead and close it out by keeping the ball -- no club crowd would tolerate that for more than 20 minutes.
English
He and his colleagues are trying to mesh the traditional @placeholder "warrior" style with the more cultured flavor of Spain and Germany, in order to produce players who are comfortable in any type of match situation.
Germany
He and his colleagues are trying to mesh the traditional English "warrior" style with the more cultured flavor of Spain and @placeholder, in order to produce players who are comfortable in any type of match situation.