Norwich City's Nathan Redmond was on target but once again England fell short at a major tournament as the Under-21s capitulated against Italy to finish bottom of their group at the European Championship.
Redmond's fine effort in injury time proved nothing more than a consolation against their Italian counterparts for Gareth Southgate's men, who were 3-0 down by this point.
Southgate admitted his side were taught 'a cruel lesson'.
'In many aspects we did get a desired performance in the way we played and moved the ball and created chances. We let really poor goals in,' Southgate said.
'You can be as attractive as you like between the penalty boxes, but games are decided at either end and we didn't take the chances we had until the final minute.
'We let poor goals in and it's a cruel lesson for them as I can't be critical of their attitude, their application and effort because they have been a tremendous group to work with and they are hurting enormously in there.'
Questions will be asked of Southgate and his selections after the Young Lions finished bottom of Group B, but few expect the head coach to pay with his job, like predecessor Stuart Pearce.
In Saturday's semi-finals, Portugal play Germany and Denmark play Sweden.
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