Capello to meet FA over future

Fabio Capello said he will not resign as England coach but will discuss his future with the Football Association after his side's World Cup exit.

England were knocked out at the last-16 stage of the competition following a 4-1 defeat by Germany.

"I have time to decide and I have to speak with the FA chairman [Sir Dave Richards]," said 64-year-old Capello.

Asked whether he would be resigning, he added: "Absolutely no. We have to wait until I get back to London."

Capello will further explain his position in England's final media conference in Rustenburg at 1330 BST on Monday, and it is understood that he will meet with FA officials beforehand.

England's players are then set to fly home overnight, arriving at Heathrow at breakfast time on Tuesday.

Lampard effort not given

The Prime Minister's deputy official spokesman said the flag of St George which was raised above Downing Street at the start of the World Cup was replaced by the Union flag on Monday morning.

Capello signed an amended contract just before the tournament committing himself to the job until the end of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine and removing a clause that allowed him to leave after the World Cup.

FA spokesman Adrian Bevington appeared to hint the Italian still has the backing of the organisation despite England's dismal showing in South Africa.

Richards, Bevington, director of football development Sir Trevor Brooking and acting chief executive Alex Horne are the men responsible for hiring and firing the England manager.

Bevington, managing director of Club England, said: "Our position has been consistent and in my mind it has not changed whatsoever.

"But clearly, Fabio needs to speak with Sir David Richards and beyond that I cannot say anything further."

On the match itself, which was watched by a peak audience of 19.5 million on BBC1, Capello said the referee's failure to give England a second goal when Frank Lampard's shot hit the bar then landed about a foot behind the line was the turning point.

"It was the most important moment of the game," stated Capello. "Where is the technology? Instead we are talking about goal or no goal."

Both Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda and his assistant Mauricio Espinosa appeared to have a good view of where the ball had landed but deemed that it had not crossed the line.

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Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski had given Germany a 2-0 advantage before a header from Matthew Upson reduced the deficit in the 37th minute.

Lampard's effort came only a minute later and England's day went from bad to worse in the second half when two goals from 20-year-old Thomas Mueller ensured that England would bow out of the tournament at the last-16 stage for the first time since 1998.

"We played well at 2-1 but after the third goal it was a little bit disappointing," added Capello.

"We played well. Germany is a big team. They played a good game. We made some mistakes when they played on the counter-attack. The referee made bigger mistakes. Little things always decide the result."

Lampard was also left stunned by the officials' decision and said: "It was a clear goal - 40,000 knew it and I knew it but there were two people that didn't. It certainly affected the game and we're bitterly disappointed."

Upson heads in for England

England captain Steven Gerrard also cited the disallowed goal as a pivotal moment of the match but conceded his team were also guilty of making errors.

"I think it's difficult, we are suffering," the Liverpool player told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It looks like we took a hiding today but that wasn't the case. As a team we weren't defensively solid enough.

"There were key decisions in the game. At 2-1 we had a goal disallowed. At this level the small details dictate games and that would have been a key goal for us and maybe we would have gone on and won it.

"During the summer we'll go away and have a think about why it went wrong. Confidence was high, we were training well but couldn't do it for 90 minutes."

Mueller tucks away Germany's fourth

Defender John Terry also believed the scoreline was an unfair reflection on England's performance.

"I can't explain why we didn't start as well as we'd like," said the Chelsea centre-back.

"It made it difficult for us but when we got the goal and then Lamps's goal, which was clearly in, it could have changed the game and reflected the final score.

"In the second half we played a lot better. The scoreline doesn't reflect the way the game was - they got three goals from counter. We're just disappointed, we wanted to be here until the end.

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"We didn't put in too many good performances before coming here. The qualifying campaign was good but the performances in the pre-tournament friendlies weren't great.

"The third game was really promising and encouraging but we couldn't get the momentum."

Terry's England partner in defence, Matthew Upson blamed the flight of the ball for the first goal, which was scored by Klose.

"I thought the ball took a bizarre sail in the air for the first goal and carried further than we anticipated," commented the West Ham player.

"It was not great but the second goal was really good movement by them and they created a good opportunity.

Germany were the better side - Cole

"I thought we came back really well and showed some really good character. It should have been 2-2 at half-time and it would have been a different game."

Winger Joe Cole, who only played a bit-part in South Africa, despite impressing in England's warm-up games, confirmed there were "issues" that needed to be sorted out.

But asked whether Capello should stay as coach, Cole added: "I think that's a question for the manager.

"He is a great manager and we have got great players. There are issues we need to address but we've all got to stick together.

"We have such high expectations. We want to win the tournament and we didn't do that.

"We do feel we have let ourselves down, the manager and the fans."

Highlights - Germany 4-1 England

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