It's a familiar feeling, the combination of unrealistic hope followed by total and utterly inevitable dejection you get if you've watched England in tournaments.

You have to go back to Italia 90 for their last decent performance, with heroic failure against Argentina in 1998 possibly counting.

The rest is a combination of abject under-performance and a catalogue of complete and total injustices and penalty shoout-out misery.

This time round it was a quiet and unusually sensible build-up, as we all realised England weren't much good.

The media didn't mention 'golden generations', they seemed realistic about England's chances.

"The Quarter-finals would be a success".

Well, yes, looking at it now, getting to the quarter-finals should have led to a national holiday.

In not talking up England, what happened was that a hidden expectation was created.

"We've got young players who will play without fear"

"Don't count against us causing an upset"

Which of course made the whole nation think they could enjoy the World Cup with England not expected to do well.

And they did something even worse - they played well.

A spirited performance in defeat against Italy meant we became hopeful for the 'easier' games against Uruguay and Costa Rica.

Uruguay had lost to Costa Rica, surely we'd beat them and give ourselves a fighting chance?

And then as always, it hits.

That oh-so-familiar look of terror in the players' eyes.

The early mistakes which make it clear to the watching world the players are stricken with fear.

The second there's any pressure on an England football team, they forget they're supposed to be highly-paid elite athletes and turn in to my old team, the Burghfield Boys under-13s.

This, coupled with the undeniable brilliance of Luis Suarez, led to an absolutely inevitable meltdown.

The young players who would definitely play without fear, played very much with fear.

And we as supporters never learn do we?

I'd convinced myself England would do nothing at the World Cup.

I was right, so why do I, and I'm sure many others, feel like this?

"It's the hope that kills you" is a massive cliche but it's completely true.

When you're not expecting anything of England, you become inwardly hopeful of over-achievement, and when the realisation of the same old terror-stricken performances of old come back AGAIN, so do the feelings of disappointment.

I'm not sure you can call it underperformance, as no-one expected them to perform.

But once, just once, I'd like to see an England team OVER-perform, to not only beat teams in the groups, but to win knock-out games, to not lose on penalties, to lose by being outplayed.

No-one expected anything from them, but yet somehow, in a way only the England football team could, they've let us down again.

It remains mathematically possible for England to still go through, Italy need to beat Costa Rica this evening and Uruguay next week.

If England beat Costa Rica they could go through, but also out on goal difference.

In fact, what could happen is that everything goes their way, they play brilliantly against Costa Rica and go through.

That or a last minute dodgy goal to make it 4-1 to Italy against Uruguay which ruins our goal difference and sends us home.

If they do go through, they'll get a kind draw, giving them a team like Ivory Coast, and we'll raise all our hopes again, and get absolutely spanked.

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