Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has said that the English fans should lower their expectations when it comes to the national team because they are simply not good enough to beat the top teams.

England were once again eliminated in the quarter-final stage at a major tournament after losing on penalties to Italy, who went on to reach the final of the competition.

Despite coming into the competition with no expectations after having lost the manager Fabio Capello only a few months ago, the expectations on England soon increased after progressing from the group stages as the winners.

However, Roy Hodgson's men were no match for the Italian's after they completely outplayed England throughout the match, but were unlucky not to score on many occasions. The game went into penalties, which has so often proved to be the stumbling block for the English.

Italy once again came out superior in the penalty shootout, thus leaving England to regret at the poor football they displayed throughout the competition. Gary Neville has admitted that England are not a top team anymore, which is the reason that fans should lower their expectations in the future. Neville has said that qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup is very important.

"I never saw an England team in the last 40 years that kept possession against teams like France, Italy, Brazil, Spain and Argentina. Wake up everybody! There's always something you can do. I played for England for a lot of years and wanted to keep the ball better, wanted to be more successful, wanted a winning team – all those things. We are in the top eight teams in the world. That's fact," said the defender Gary Neville in a recent interview. The former Manchester United defender was part of the coaching staff at the Euro 2012.