England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce has admitted that he is frustrated at his side's early exit from the European Under-21 Championship.

A 3-1 defeat on Saturday evening to Norway ensured that England could not qualify from Group A and will go home from Israel early.

Pearce said that the most disappointing aspect is that the players have not played to their potential in their opening two matches.

"We're disappointed," he told Sky Sports News. "We're out of the competition. I don't think the players have done themselves credit, to be honest with you, either individually or collectively.

"You get what you deserve out of football and that's nothing out of this tournament so far. We have to now concentrate on doing things properly for the tournament's sake against Israel.

"We didn't perform over the two games consistently enough. We started brightly enough but then we decided it was good enough to just pass the ball and not do the defensive side and the dirty side of it and shipped three poor goals."

England lost 1-0 to Italy in their opening game on Wednesday.

Written by
Matt Domm