SCHOLES IS ENGLISH PIRLO?

Micheal Owen reckons England missed their own Andrea Pirlo at Euro 2012 — Paul Scholes. Pirlo, 33, shone as Italy knocked the Three Lions out of the tournament on penalties last night. Roy Hodgson's side struggled to keep possession throughout their campaign.

And former Manchester United striker Owen believes the presence of Scholes would have helped.

He wrote on Twitter: "Pirlo was awesome but we have a player of a similar age and equally as good. Unfortunately he wasn't there. #Scholes.

"Easy for people to say 'until we keep possession better we will never win anything'. We are not as good as others at doing that.

"We played to our strengths but are just not quite good enough. We were hoping to 'do a Chelsea'.

"If you are not the best team then you have to find an alternative way to win.

"The other option is to forget results for a while and start from scratch playing a different style.

"Doubt we have the type of players to do that though. Answer has to be to start coaching our youngsters a different brand of football."

Rio Ferdinand pointed out pass master Pirlo as the difference in the game.

He tweeted: "Wow, out on penalties again. Gutted for the lads man.

"On a pure footballing note Pirlo just put on a pure footballing master class + the penalty was too much".

Joey Barton, capped once for his country, said England deserved to come in second best.

He wrote: "What is it with us and penalties? Saved us from the embarrassment of a pasting off Germany in the next round.

"Even the most biased Englishmen has to admit that Italy were much the better team over 120mins... #sadbuttrue".

 curled from  Sports Radio Brila FM