England, having unconvincingly stumbled along a perilous tightrope between success and failure, duly plunged over the precipice as they crashed out of the European Championships due to a late penalty by Romania.

England were clinging desperately to their apparent place in the quarter-finals against Italy after being outplayed by the Romanians.

But with only three minutes left, Phil Neville brought down Viorel Moldovan inside the penalty area and substitute Ioan Ganea struck the ball firmly past keeper Nigel Martyn, in for the injured David Seaman just before kick-off.

It was the 1998 World Cup all over again - but this time with devastating results.

Two years ago in Toulouse, England clinched an equaliser through substitute Michael Owen only for Dan Petrescu to secure victory in the final minute.

On that occasion, England still had their final group game against Colombia to rescue qualification chances.

This time, it was all over. Keegan's confident belief that his team could win the European Championships had been shattered.

And amid the two pre-match forecasts of facing Italy in the quarter-finals or of the hooligans forcing the team to be thrown out of the competition, the idea of taking a draw against Romania virtually for granted by some outside the England camp was shown to be a blatant case of over-expectation.

Yet again, England had managed to pluck defeat out of the jaws of a draw which would have taken them through. Against Portugal, they threw away a 2-0 lead. Against Romania, it was a one-goal lead but the aftermath was even worse

The commitment and determination of the side could not be faulted. It was just their defensive and passing weaknesses that were the problem.

Romania had thoroughly deserved their 22nd-minute lead through Cristian Chivu and England's unconvincing first-half display hardly merited their 40th-minute equaliser when Alan Shearer scored from the penalty spot after Paul Ince had been downed.

Indeed, the paucity of their passing was such that the through-ball which Paul Scholes laid through for Michael Owen to finish four minutes into injury-time was a rare exception.

That was almost the way - in scoring terms rather than performance - in which England fought back against Argentina at the last World Cup.

Yet just like Argentina equalised soon afterwards, so too did Romania through Dorinel Munteanu two minutes into the second period, before a penalty again settled matters.

England may have defeated Germany for the first time in a competitive game for 34 years just three days ago but they had similarly not beaten Romania for 30 years and that proved an even harder ghost to lay to rest.

Even without Gheorghe Hagi and even though they created little in their 94th-minute defeat against Portugal, Romania had still finished above the Portuguese in their qualifying group for the tournament and still had far more dangerous movement and passing ability than England.

That was immediately clear, especially with Seaman injuring his left leg in the warm-up and being replaced just before kick-off by Martyn.

Within three minutes, Martyn produced a fine save to parry a 20-yard free-kick by Adrian Ilie.

But he was being given little protection by either his defence or midfield as England yet again failed to dominate possession.

Hagi's replacement, Adrian Mutu, was allowed far too much space in which to pick England apart and Martyn had to parry a shot by Moldovan.

David Beckham almost managed to pick out the diving figure of Sol Campbell with one curling free-kick.

However Chivu, who had conceded that free-kick, responded immediately by bursting unchallenged into the England area and lobbing a cross which drifted in the air over the head of Martyn and hit the inside of the far post before crossing the line.

It had certainly been on the cards and Adrian Ilie then arrived unmarked to meet Dan Petrescu's cross only to head straight at the England keeper, while Chivu broke through again only to fire over the bar.

Then came a remarkable 10-minute turn-around in England's fortunes.

Shearer laid the ball off to Ince from a throw-in and the Middlesbrough midfielder burst dangerously into the penalty area.

Challenged by Chivu, he went down and won a penalty which Shearer confidently despatched. Ince still needed to produce a superb recovery tackle as Mutu broke dangerously, yet out of nowhere, England were ahead on the stroke of half-time.

Scholes lobbed a through-ball ahead of Owen, who beat the offside trap and swamped forward to just get a touch on the ball which deflected it past Stelea as the keeper came haring out.

The job was not done for the Liverpool striker but he tucked the ball home from a tight angle.

The lead did not last long though as Romania struck back immediately after the interval when Martyn flapped at a cross amid confusion with Martin Keown and Munteanu volleyed back into the net as the keeper struggled to recover his position.

Owen was replaced by Emile Heskey on 66 minutes but still the opposition pressed forward.

Petrescu and Contra had efforts blocked and Martyn saved from Mutu.

Gareth Southgate replaced Scholes to man-mark Mutu amid a typically English backs-to-the-wall performance in which Keown stood out but even that was not enough to prevent Romania clinching the winner with three minutes left.

Moldovan was running towards the dead-ball line when Phil Neville stormed in with a tackle he never needed to make and a penalty was duly - and rightly - awarded.

The rest as they say is history