Gerrard: It Wil Be Unbelieveable .......

Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard has said it will be ‘unthinkable’ for England not to reach the Euro 2008 finals.

But that is the bleak prospect now facing the country after they lost 2-1 to Russia in Moscow, having led 1-0 and looked comfortable.

If Gerrard himself had buried a gilt-edged second-half chance to give England a 2-0 lead, things might have been different this morning.

But he fluffed that chance, volleying wide instead of hitting the target, and admitted: “I had a great chance to make it 2-0. But it was one of those which seemed to take an eternity to come down.

“I tried to get as much contact as possible but it was not to be and I’m disappointed.

“It’s unthinkable that there will be a European championship finals without England but, as players, we must take responsibility.”

England were in control after Wayne Rooney had struck a superb volley on 29 minutes to give them a 1-0 lead.

But Russia coach Guus Hiddink responded to his team’s looming elimination by changing personnel and tactics at half-time.

Hiddink, who had never before won a game against an English club or national side, broke his duck following the introduction of striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Russia turned the game on its head in he space of four minutes and put themselves firmly in the driving seat for qualification, albeit with the lucky award of a penalty that should have beebn a free-kick.

That, though, compensated for a legitimate goal they had disallowed in a 3-0 defeat by England at Wembley a month earlier.

Last night Rooney was adjudged to have fouled in the area, although the offence was outside the box.

Gerrard added: “The penalty gave them a lot of confidence. They were on the front foot and put us under a lot of pressure.

“But even after they scored the penalty we should have been stronger and seen the game out.

"We were hard done by with the penalty. Wayne told us it was outside the box and it looked that way.

“The linesman didn’t give it and the referee seemed to over-rule him.

“At half-time we were one-up, the gameplan was working perfectly and with a clean sheet we were through.

“We were in control and it shows you how a decision changed the whole game.

“We can’t believe it, it’s a game we controlled and at one-up we had one foot in the finals.”

England must now hope Israel take points off Russia next month.

Hiddink’s side have a straightforward final match at home to Andorra while England must beat hitherto unbeaten Croatia at Wembley on November 21, and hope Israel have by then done them a favour.

Gerrard said: “I can’t believe it’s out of our hands.

“We have worked so hard for the last five or six months to put ourselves in the driving seat and make ourselves favourites to go through.

“At a goal up we started to believe we were nearly there — that we had one foot in the finals.

"But football is a cruel game and chances and decisions and mistakes change matches.”