England coach Roy Hodgson is desperate to end their hoodoo against Italy.

Hodgson earned the Baggies their first win at Liverpool for 45 years, won at Stoke after 30 years of trying - and finished above neighbours Villa after playing second fiddle for 33 years.

He said: "I came across negatives quite a lot at West Bromwich. We've never finished above Aston Villa, we've never won at Stoke, we've never won this or done that.

"I got used to it in the end and I was lucky enough to put some of those hoodoos to bed.

"It's a minor form of history if we beat Italy and it's nice not to have that situation going into the next tournament where the question comes up again.

"I'm not going to add to the pressure though by saying to the players 'Oh. . .and by the way, you can be historic.'

"Let's just win. If it comes off it will be fantastic because we'll be in a semi-final and it would give us a bit of an extra glow.

"And it would put one of those nasty statistics for a team of England's stature to rest."