The fact England beat Sweden on penalties after a 120-minute, 3-3 draw didn’t really come as much of a surprise as many experts thought it would go down to the wire, (including England manager Stuart Pearce), but the way the game played out took quite a few people off guard.

In what looked like to be a walkover for England, after taking a 3-0 lead into the dressing room at half time, suddenly became a game of life and death for them as they blew the lead and looked certain to go tumbling out of the European U21 Championship semi final in a most humiliating way.

Martin Cranie silenced the Swedish crowd after just 53 seconds with a goal off a corner from James Milner. Then Nedum Onuoha doubled the lead in the 27th minute on another Milner corner. Sweden has been brutal all throughout the tournament on set pieces and in the 38th minute they failed to clear another corner and Mattias Bjarsmyr eventually ended up putting it in his own net for what looked like to be an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

The second half started with England looking adventurous. Theo Walcott made a brilliant run in the 51st minute which showed why he’s so important to England’s future. Pearce had no choice but to play the speedy youngster today as it would have shattered Walcott’s confidence. Here’s a kid who is good enough to score a hat trick in a World Cup Qualifier away in Croatia for the senior team, but isn’t always getting into the U21 squad. He has to play for the U21s or he’ll obviously begin to have doubts about his ability. There’s no way England can afford to screw with this guy’s mind. When he’s healthy and available, he has to play. It’s as simple as that.

Sweden cut the lead to 3-1 in the 68th minute when Marcus Berg was left unmarked in the box and he right-footed a shot home. It was his sixth goal of the tournament. This brought the crowd back to life

The stadium got a lot louder just seven minutes later as England gave up a ridiculous free kick just outside of the box and Ola Toivonen slammed it home.

Berg then raised the roof off of the stadium with his seventh goal of the event as he leveled the score at 3-3 in the 81st minute. England had completely lost the plot and Pearce’s substitutions need to be questioned as he couldn’t leave things alone when they were going well for the team. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Sub Fraizer Campbell, who came on for Gabriel Agbonalahor in the 59th minute, darkened the skies more for England as he was sent off in the 84th for his second yellow card in 25 minutes.

It was one-way traffic from then on as Sweden opened the floodgates, but couldn’t find the winner, even though Berg came close to scoring his third of the game in extra time, but his header ricocheted off of the crossbar.

England managed to hang on until the final whistle and Pearce’s prediction of a penalty shootout came true. I’m not sure if he was dreading it though, as he’s been on the losing end of them twice as a player and once with the U21s in that marathon 32 penalty shootout to Holland in the semi finals two years ago, or if he was actually looking forward to it, to finally get the monkey off his back.

Either way, Milner stepped up to take the first kick and promptly ended up on his ass while taking one of the worst spot kicks in the history of football. But English keeper Joe Hart saved Sweden’s first penalty to even things up. Hart then took the next penalty and got England on the board. Things were level at 4-4 after five penalties each. Kieran Gibbs, put the visitors ahead 5-4 and then Guillermo hit the post on Sweden’s sixth shot and that what all she wrote. England had won a rare penalty shootout and will now face Germany, who beat Italy 1-0 in the other semi final, in the championship game on Monday June 29th.

Things won’t bee easy though as Hart, Agbonalahor, and Campbell will all miss the match because of suspension.

There can be no big surprises at the fact that Real Madrid captain, Fabio Cannavaro, reportedly turned down the chance to go and earn some big money at Manchester City.

Cannavaro is just the latest rumoured target for the City merry go round in a football reality where money quite clearly doesn’t talk. Cannavaro’s decision comes without massive shock because once again City are trying to punch above their weight before they have solidified the foundations of the club.

After losing a regular starting place at Real Madrid under their manager, Juande Ramos, Cannavaro’s future has become uncertain. It seems a lot more likely that he will return to Juventus this summer to rejoin the club where he formed his reputation as one of the best defenders in the world.

He made just fewer than 100 appearances at Juventus and should he decide to return then it may turn out that it feels to the club like he had never been away. This personal satisfaction could be just the thing that sways the eventual decision.

You have to admire City’s ambition. Kaka, Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o and now Cannavaro have all been approached with unrealistic financial figures being offered to sway a decision they would otherwise not even think about.

Cannavaro said in the Italian media: “I didn’t want to have start from scratch again, not in a World Cup year. That’s why I rejected offers from Bayern Munich and Manchester City.”

The move once again defies the comments made by Manchester City defender, Nedum Onuoha, last month that players will join City this summer for football reasons. Well this instance proves that no amount of money or solid football foundations can prevent a player from going to where he wants to go.

City could have offered Cannavaro the same figures they were reported to have offered Kaka to leave AC Milan and he still would not have thought seriously about joining.

It all points to the fact that City will have to sign less high profile and more experienced players to build the success that will get the attention of better quality players.

This news comes just days after City were reported to be trying to draw Eto’o away from Barcelona in what was quite literally a nonsense attempt. Fair enough City have massive financial backing at the moment but the club’s owners have to realise that the football transfer market is not a candy shop where they can go and buy who they want.

Despite the financial influence in the modern game, money is not what makes day to day club routine tick. Comfort and job satisfaction are clearly valued by players such as Cannavaro a lot more than hundreds of thousands of pounds per week. Far from it, Cannavaro probably has a good couple of million in the bank to fall back on once he retires from the game in Italy.

There will be many more stories like this one but if City sign any big names this summer it will be because those players display more mercenary tendencies than a large amount of sporting ambition.