Frustration: Wayne Rooney was disappointed with his miss but he made up for it after the break

England will nevertheless need to improve come that clash with Italy, just as Rooney will need to convert the kind of chances he was presented with when Ashley Young planted a brilliant cross on that refurbished head of his before the break. It was an opportunity Carroll almost certainly would have buried, and that would have only made it all the more painful for Rooney when it was the towering Liverpool striker whom he displaced.

Rooney did not have the kind of game he would have imagined for himself, even if he will take pleasure in his first tournament goal in eight years. He was not as sharp as he claimed he was; he was a player who looked like he hadn’t played a full game for more than a month.

After 87 minutes on Tuesday night, it should be a better Rooney come Sunday. A Rooney who can provide the oil in the machine that has been missing at times; who can make
England a more fluid, fluent attacking force. Rooney and Danny Welbeck have proved themselves a potent attacking partnership at Manchester United this season, scoring 33 goals in 22 starts.

Against Ukraine this England team experienced difficulties that are starting to become familiar to Hodgson, not least when in possession.

Ukraine did not make it easy for England, defending deep and pouncing with their swiftly executed counter-attacks. But England need to play with more cohesion and composure as well as the organisation and determination that has got them this far. Gerrard said they were ‘unbreakable’ after the Sweden game and Hodgson has certainly made England very difficult to beat.

The knee injury that prevented Andriy Shevchenko from starting this final group match made it that much harder for Ukraine. It also seemed to affect the mood of a crowd that was never more vocal than when their hero eventually joined this contest as a 70th-minute substitute. Hostile hosts? They were relatively subdued, as the 4,000 England fans made themselves heard over the 44,000 Ukrainians.

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