THIS was a night when a solid performance and home advantage was never going to be enough to see England through. They needed to play very well to beat the Italians, they didn't, and now they almost certainly have to win in Rome if they are to take the automatic qualifying place from Group Two.

Glenn Hoddle had his problems in the build-up to the game, with several players injured and another couple ruled out at a late stage. But the performances turned in by most of the players who d5d go out there for England were generally disappointing, while the manager did himself no favours with the tactics he employed.

In Alan Shearer there is little doubt that the English have one of the most talented strikers in Europe, and yet for most of the night Shearer found himself alone up front with only the Italian defence for company.

For more than an hour there were effectively three men watching over him, and the sort of support he needed from midfield was almost non-existent. Neither Steve McManaman nor Matthew Le Tissier were making the runs into the box that might have caused the visitors problems and allowed Shearer some space in which to work.

Even that wouldn't have been too bad if there had been some sort of supply coming in from wide positions, but they are not the sort of players who get out wide to cross, and David Beckham tends to look more comfortable in a central role.

That leaves Graeme Le Saux, who did well enough on his return to the national team but it is not realistic to expect such a player, coming from a long way back, to get the better of defenders of the calibre of the Italians before getting a decent cross in.

Things weren't too great at the back for the English either, with Sol Campbell, Gary Neville and Stuart Pearce looking uncomfortable all night and being caught badly for the goal. It's a bit of a cliche at this sort of level to point out that all it takes is a single mistake to lose a game, but that is exactly what happened on this occasion.

Pearce and Campbell were both caught ball watching for a fraction of a second, and that was that against the likes of Zola you rarely get the opportunity to recover from even the briefest lapses of concentration. The Chelsea striker took the goal superbly, but it was only one small, although clearly important, part of a very impressive performance.

He was a constant thorn in the side of the English and his ability to hold the ball up, link with Pierluigi Casiraghi or take on players meant the majority of his team-mates could sit back defensively and depend on being able to break into attack at speed.

This they did wonderfully. The five men across the centre were all magnificent, sitting there in front of the three-man defence and basically challenging the English to try to break them down. It never looked certain that the home side would be able to rise to the challenge. But, once they went behind, the English were always going to find it tremendously tough to get back on level terms because they had to open their game up a good deal more than they would have liked, while the Italians were doing precisely what they do brilliantly - kill a game stone dead when it suits them, and then, when they see an opportunity, spring on to the attack.

The Italian goalkeeper, Angelo Peruzzi did just about everything that was expected of him, although things might have turned out differently if his one real mistake of the night had been punished. When he came far off his line in a badly misjudged attempt to cut out a high ball for Le Tissier, he has only luck to thank for his escape. The Southampton player is not famed for his use of the head, and it is almost certain that if that had been Shearer aiming at an empty goal then the ball would have been steered safely into the net.

In fairness to Hoddle, he really had to stick with the team that he had selected until about an hour had gone, and that's what he did. When he did make the change, the arrival of Les Ferdinand seemed likely to have a positive effect.

To a certain extent it did, for at least Costacurta had to choose which defender to support when England attacked, so Shearer's prospects of making some space for himself improved. The arrival of Paul Merson, however, did nothing to vary the English approach, and, still unable to play their way through the Italian, barrier in midfield, his side's chances of, salvaging a draw from the game steadily ticked away without Peruzzi being unduly troubled.

In the end the Italians' combination of flamboyant style with stern discipline won the day and the English can hardly complain about the result of a match in which clearly the better team won.