England U21 boss Stuart Pearce has revealed how he learned how to conduct himself as a top player from his greatest German rivals.

Pearce said: "We'd probably have won the World Cup and the Euros if we'd won those shoot-outs.

"But we didn't. We went out to the best team. That's life, it hurts and the pain never mellows. But I still think about those games because I draw experience from them.

"I learned some lessons and I have to make sure they're passed on. I learned the importance of a penalty shoot-out and what the pressure is like.

"I learned, in a drugs test after the semi final in 1990, that two German players sat opposite me and Peter Shilton showed absolutely no joy in getting to a final. Maybe their mentality was that they'd achieved nothing yet. Maybe they also had some sympathy for the two English players with them.

"That was a big lesson for me in how to conduct yourself."