We thought it was our day, says Aidy

ENGLAND’S young Lions were left shattered after their penalty jinx against Germany returned to haunt them once again. After seeing his side lose the shootout, manager Aidy Boothroyd admitted: ‘We are absolutely gutted — sick of losing on penalties after going so close. ‘A lot of hard work went into this tournament. We went behind and came back into the game and thought it was our day. I fancied our chances strongly. ‘With all the practice we’ve done, their keeper made two very good saves. ‘We learned from the past and worked on penalties but the fatigue, energy expended and the fact we fancied ourselves means we’re very disappointed.’ Nathan Redmond, who missed the crucial kick and will be no longer qualify for the Under 21s, was crestfallen but Demarai Gray, who scored England’s first goal in normal time, insisted he would not lack support. Gray said: ‘We are devastated for him. I’ll put my arm around his shoulder like he’d do for me. We are there for him.’ England sat deep after Abraham had given them a 2-1 lead in the second half and Boothroyd said: ‘The problem we had was that we played that many shapes as we tried to get a foothold. ‘We started with our normal diamond. Then used our front players in a back six ... we then put the wide players really wide. ‘When you see chances go begging for them you start to think it might be your day. Unfortunately not … and to be fair Germany were good.’ Germany coach Stefan Kuntz, who scored in the shootout at Euro 96 at Wembley, said cryptically: ‘I told the players before the match that if a father and son watch and the son says they have great haircuts I want the father to tell them they ran 12km, scored goals, played with passion and made us proud.’