Now he said he would go to bed for two days. 'Then come and ask. We're going to enjoy it. We'll worry about Germany in good time. They're very good, we know what confronts us and they know what confronts them.'

Sad to reflect that what awaited England was the meaningless anticlimax of a third place match in Bari, which they'd lose to Italy. 'We've got here,' reflected Bobby Robson later, before the semi-final. 'I don't know how.'

Robson's luck? It certainly ran out in Turin against Germany, when England succumbed on penalties after extra time. And there was arguably ill luck when the Germans led, on the hour a shot by the German full back Andy Brehme hit Parker, curling into the air, over Shilton's head and into the net.

England, who again used Terry Butcher as sweeper but again replaced him in the second half with Trevor Steven, equalised ten minutes from time, when Parker crossed from the right; Jurgen Kohler and Klaus Augenthaler, central defenders, clumsily confused one another, allowing the unmarked Lineker to score. And, in an iconic moment much analysed in the years since, Gascoigne was cautioned and promptly wept when he realised it would mean suspension from the next match possibly the final. Tears that touched so many. The daft brush had become the sad clown.

Overall, the German team looked tired, but it held out into extra time, during which each team hit the post: Chris Waddle for England, Guido Buchwald for Germany, while Shilton made glorious saves from Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann. But when it came to penalties, Pearce shot into the keeper Illgner's flying body, Waddle shot over the bar, and England were out.

In a moment of utter fatuity Peter Swales, Manchester City's chairman, and leading member of the Senior International Committee, announced that he would rather England lost the World Cup than Bobby Robson remain. Doubly fatuous, in that Robson had already announced before the tournament that he would not be continuing. So ended a stewardship hardly remarkable for its consistency, yet successful enough in two World Cups.