2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship: Wednesday's Day 8 Takeaways

The European Under-21 Championship group stages finished with a flourish on Wednesday, and we now have our full lineup of semi-finalists. Portugal and Sweden drew in Prague, both securing passage to the knockouts, where they'll join Denmark and Germany.

Here, B/R walks through the biggest takeaways and chimes in on the top storylines of the night.

1. England's postmortem

Where better to start than another traditional English failure? The 3-1 loss to Italy sank The Three Lions to the bottom of Group B, ensuring they cannot reach the semi-finals and will exit at the earliest possible stage. Again.

Twitter is already up in arms: "Gareth Southgate's clueless," "England are cursed," "the mentality is all wrong." While finishing dead last, despite being in a tough group, perhaps a dose of realism is the place to start in this all-important postmortem of the tournament.

In my pre-tournament rankings, I had England as the fifth-best team gunning for glory in the Czech Republic. Fifth-best. Four qualify for the semi-finals; the rest go home. England drew Italy (second-best) and Portugal (third-best) in their group; getting out of it was always going to be a tall order, so this should not come as a surprise.

Christian Hofer/Getty Images

It doesn't matter what the mainstream press say; a good qualification process creates a tightly coiled spring fit to burst with optimism, but the nationals, dailies and tabloids don't even bother watching the other sides until the finals begin. They have no idea how good the other countries are, so their cautious encouragement of England's chances at the upcoming tournament mean precisely nothing.

Southgate made some weird decisions in the Czech Republic, got the midfield selections horribly wrong and misjudged Italy badly in the final game. He is not without fault and has arguably swept the leg from underneath his own rising fortunes—fortunes that were rightfully on the mend.

But on balance, England weren't a contender for this trophy and weren't one of the four strongest sides. It's a marked step forward from the torrid Stuart Pearce reign (although perhaps that means little), and profligacy was arguably enemy No. 1 here.

Think of the sheer amount of chances Harry Kane, Danny Ings, Nathan Redmond and Co. missed over the past 10 days. This wasn't the same old boring, unimaginative, turgid England; Southgate was massively let down by some horrific "finishing" in the final third. Kane missed five on his own against Portugal, they were all guilty against Italy and they actually won against Sweden.

This isn't a defence of Southgate, who, as stated, has damaged the work he's done to rebuild his own reputation this summer. But it was unrealistic to think England could qualify from this group without at least eight of the players performing out of their skins, so temper your expectations—and grumbles—appropriately.

2. Defiant Sweden

Matej Divizna/Getty Images

Say what you will about Sweden's defensive style or Hakan Ericson's slightly volatile personality, but boy, does he have his players giving their all for the cause. Do they watch Never Back Down in the dressing room before every game? Where does the fight and spirit come from?

An 82nd-minute goal from Portugal's Goncalo Paciencia should have knocked the Scandinavians out. The swing was enough to push them out of contention for the semi-finals and bring Italy in. Over in Olomouc, Luigi Di Biagio heard the news and signaled to his players that Os Selecao had played their part; they were set to qualify from the group.

But Ericson and his men weren't done, and Simon Tibbling grabbed an 89th-minute equaliser to set up a Nordic derby in the semi-finals against the much-fancied Denmark. Sweet justice—and reward—for a committed, dedicated, never-say-die attitude. Italy, on the other hand, bow out with England.

We identified Sweden's giant-killing gene before the tournament kicked off, suggesting it could shape the group. It proved so, as Sweden secured passage with four points while simultaneously knocking out two "titans" in the world of football.

They enter the knockout stages as the worst team left in the tournament and as rank outsiders to lift the trophy, but we're not even sure that matters anymore.

3. Paciencia answers the call

After the second round of matches, concerns were raised over whether Portugal lacked the cutting edge required to be a contender for the European Under-21 Championship title.

The sole Portuguese goal scored ahead of Wednesday's action was a slightly fortuitous one against England, and the blank drawn against Italy was especially disappointing because none of Os Selecao's designated forwards managed to get anywhere near a goalscoring position.

Matej Divizna/Getty Images

But Paciencia answered the call against Sweden, slotting home after entering the fray as a substitute. He's the only traditional No. 9 in a squad intent on playing a 4-4-2 diamond, and manager Rui Jorge has thus far preferred to play wingers and wide forwards up front instead.

Carlos Mane, Ivan Cavaleiro, Rafa Silva and Ricardo Pereira have all shown enough faults to counteract the strengths, and public pressure will call for Paciencia—now free of lingering issues that haunted his May/June period—to start the semi-finals. After his showing on Wednesday, those calls are justified.

Follow @stighefootball