England needed an Italy win to remain in the World Cup finals but a goal from Bryan Ruiz saw Costa Rica beat the Italians and knock Roy Hodgson’s men out the tournament.
Costa Rica created the first chance of the game when Celso Borges headed Christian Bolanos’s corner just over the crossbar, but despite the miss, they restricted Italy to no clear cut chances.
Thiago Motta did well to create an opening but he could only fire his shot wide of Keylor Navas’ goal.
The Italians then had another good chance as Andrea Pirlo began to grow into the game, supplying Mario Balotelli, but the AC Milan striker saw his chip go wide.
Moments later and Balotelli would test Navas again but the Levante keeper proved to be in superb form, following his excellent season in La Liga.
Arsenal striker Joel Campbell then felt aggrieved when he was hauled down in the penalty box by Giorgio Chiellini, but the referee waved play on.
With a minute left to play though, Costa Rica scored as Bryan Ruiz headed in a superb cross from Junior Diaz.
The second half saw Italy make changes as they hoped to get back in the game but Costa Rica continued to withhold a front line of the likes of Balotelli, Alessio Cerci and Lorenzo Insigne.
Keylor Navas continued to be on form as he denied both Matteo Darmian and Pirlo in the space of two minutes and his performance helped Costa Rica hold on the qualify for the knock out stages and in the process knock England out of the World Cup.
