Relief for Milner after England wilt

'Mission accomplished'
England surrendered a 2-0 lead which would have sent Italy out of the tournament and they now need to beat Group B winners Serbia on Sunday to be sure of making the last four, but Milner is confident he and his team-mates are still on course. He told uefa.com: "We could have been four up after the first half. We seemed to sit back a bit in the second half but this is still mission accomplished if you like, because qualification is still in our hands in the final game and you can't ask any more than that."

Heat factor
Italy appeared to master the conditions better than England, who visibly tired after the break in the clamminess generated by playing indoors and the Newcastle United FC winger admits he found the going tough. "It was even hotter than it was under the sun in the first game [0-0 against Czech Republic] but it's the same for both teams and that's tournament football for you," he said. "You're losing a lot of fluid even though you take a lot on before the game. You're also losing salt from that which means you might start cramping up towards the end of the game and I did once tonight."

Ice bath
The 21-year-old's only other experience of international tournaments was at the 2003 UEFA European U19 Championship, where England fell to hosts Portugal in the semi-finals, with Milner among the goals in a 2-2 draw before they went out on penalties. "This is my second time and it's very important how you manage your downtime," he said. "I think in that tournament [2003] we played games even closer together. When the heat is like this, we've got to make sure we recover well, get in the ice baths and look after ourselves. We've got a squad of players we can use and that comes into it as well."