It was Jock Stein, the former Celtic manager, who said of tournament football: "You qualify in your boiler suit and then put on your tuxedo."
England made it out of the group stage at Euro 2012 at times playing like a team of gas fitters. It drew 1-1 with France, scoring from its only attempt on target, beat Sweden 3-2 when there could have been no complaints had the game been drawn and then defeated cohost Ukraine courtesy of a goal-keeping howler and a match official failing to see the ball was a foot over the goal line.
Luck usually runs out, and England will need to show more sartorial elegance against Italy in the quarterfinals on Sunday if it is to progress to what would be nose-bleed territory — England has never reached the European Championship semifinals.