England come up short in clumsy, sloppy game against the Netherlands to fall at semi-final stage once again

Even if tonight ended up like England’s last semi-final, the agony in the Luzhniki almost one year ago, the story was very different. That was a game of tidal predictability, the match moving slowly but unstoppably away from England over its long painful course. You could sense, long before the two Croatian goals, where it was going to end up.

This game was very different. It was messy, error-strewn, riotous fun and always unpredictable. It was a game of moments, not patterns, a game made up of little random events that all could have gone either way.

England’s opener came from a disastrous error from Matthijs De Ligt. The Netherlands’ decisive second came from one just as bad by John Stones, almost two hours later. Two of the smoothest young defenders in the game reduced to clowns by errant slips on the wet pitch. Both men lost control of the ball on the turn, De Ligt gave away a penalty, Stones saw Holland score from the rebound. Both men were punished for trying to play the right way.

So it was perfectly fitting with this clumsy sloppy game how England finally gifted it away in extra time’s second half. Stones and Ross Barkley trying to play out from the back, Barkley put in a difficult position, getting it wrong, Memphis Depay taking advantage and Quincy Promes killing the game.

Even between two of Europe’s most exciting young teams, this was not a night when quality was rewarded. If there was a reason why the Dutch managed to win, it is that their defence - despite De Ligt’s slips - made fewer errors.

But in between those two game-turning errors there were plenty of other mistakes that went unpunished, moments when the game opened up but no-one could take advantage. Like Stones mistiming a clever turn in the box, or Kyle Walker being robbed by Memphis Depay and sending him straight through on goal. When Jadon Sancho placed a free header straight at Jasper Cillessen he missed a moment to put England 2-0 up too.

There are some games that are easy to explain, where the outcome was determined by the flow of the play. England losing to Croatia is a perfect example. But this was more about moments and mistakes, and England simply made far more of them.

Even the extra-time spell when Stones’ slip lost the game might not have happened. And both teams could feel, at the end of the 90, as if they might have already had it wrapped up by then. As if they should have been celebrating with their fans at the final whistle and then back on their way home by midnight. Because this game could have been determined in either direction in the final few minutes of normal time.

England, for one thrilling minute at the end, thought that they had won it. Only for Jesse Lingard’s non-winner to be ruled out by a pernickety matter of milimetres. It felt like one of those decisions which was right only in the most technical sense. If decisions that marginal are to be re-refereed then the whole game might as well be officiated via big screen. Just two minutes after that, England feared that they would be beaten in normal team, left suspended in agony waiting for a VAR decision on a penalty that never was.

If there is one link to be drawn between tonight and the Luzhniki, it still comes down to experience and game management. Both times England took the lead in the first half, after causing problems with their pace on the break. But both times they failed to shut the game down as required.

The Gareth Southgate era has been one of constant progress but now they have tried to get past this same hurdle twice, and failed twice. The next semi-final they have a chance of playing in will be at Wembley in July 2020. If they do well enough at Euro 2020 to get to that game, they know that they will have to win.