England out on penalties

A superb first half from volley from Leroy Lita looked to have put England into the final of the competition, though Maceo Rigters scored an 89th minute overhead kick to force extra-time, and an epic shoot-out ensued.

Both sides missed one penalty in the first round of spot-kicks, with Justin Hoyte the English culprit, and chaos broke out when England tried to have the injured Stephen Taylor withdrawn rather than have him take a penalty.

Dutch coach Foppe de Haan showed his disgust by marching away down the touchline as the officials decided what should be done, though the situation was resolved as the Newcastle defender stepped up to score anyway.

Matt Derbyshire's miss gave Daniel de Ridder the chance to put his side into the final though Scott Carson pulled off a fantastic save.

But the Liverpool custodian could do nothing when Gianni Zuiverloon stroked the ball coolly into the bottom corner after Anton Ferdinand had hit the bar.

The Dutch's first real chance of the match fell to Ryan Babel, after Erik Pieters played a long ball from defence into Rigters, who chested it down for the Ajax man, though his shot was struck far too close to Carson, who held comfortably.

Babel again threatened after combining well with de Ridder five minutes later, though struck a tame shot over the bar from the edge of the area, and the Dutch were punished for their profligacy five minutes later, when Lita opened the scoring.

The Reading man latched onto a superb flick-on from David Nugent, before holding off the challenge of Ron Vlaar and lashing a left foot shot past Boy Waterman.

Rigters looked set to pull the Dutch level just before half-time from another excellent Royston Drenthe cross, though the ball ran through the striker's legs as he lined up the shot, and De Ridder lashed well wide at the far post.

Lita almost doubled England's lead at the start of the second half as he saw a free-kick cannon wide off the far post with Waterman beaten, before Stuart Pearce's men began to be forced back under a tide of orange pressure.

England were lucky to escape with their goal intact after two wicked inswinging corners from Drenthe flashed across the box, and had Taylor to thank for managing to block a Rigters shot after Carson had palmed away a piledriver from Hedwiges Maduro.

Only a large slice of luck came to their rescue when a dangerous ball driven across goal by Babel struck Taylor and cannoned away to safety, though there was a large element of misfortune about the equaliser when it finally arrived.

The big Newcastle defender was down on the ground nursing an ankle injury when Rigters ghosted in at the back post to acrobatically volley home Ryan Donk's cushioned header across goal. Given the controversy surrounding Derbyshire's goal against Serbia in the final group game, England could have few complaints.

Though tempo went out of the attacking game of the Dutch during the first half of extra-time, they were playing against a shattered England side, and one that was reduced to ten men when Nedum Onuoha went off injured with all three substitutions having been made.

Carson was called upon to claim a succession of crosses hoisted into the box by the dominant Dutch in the second half of extra time, and some heroically brave performances from the England defence restricted the Dutch to just two poor headers from substitute Tim Janssen.

But the drama was yet to come as England once again bowed out of an international competition on spot-kicks.

Serbia will play the Dutch in Saturday's final following a 2-0 victory over Belgium in Arnhem.

Alexander Kolarov put the Serbs ahead in just the fourth minute with an inswinging cross that evaded everybody in the box and crept in at the far post.

Belgium poured forward in search of an equaliser after the break, and Marouane Fellaini passed up three good opportunities to pull them level.

The Belgians were eventually caught on the break as the clock ran down though. Substitute Dragan Mrdja ran on to a long ball out of defence and finished emphatically past goalkeeper Logan Bailly.