Major British newspapers looked for a silver lining following the collapse of England's World Cup dreams, and easily found it in the fact that manager Sven Goren Eriksson is on his way out.

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson talks to the media at their World Cup soccer training camp near Baden-Baden, July 2, 2006.[Reuters]

"It all ends in tears... but at least there's no more Sven," crowed the headline on the front page of the Mail on Sunday, summing up the view of many England fans after their side's penalty shoot-out loss to Portugal following a goalless match.

"England were beaten by an inherently inferior team," wrote Patrick Collins, the Mail's man in Gelsenkirchen.

"Of course, the players must answer for their faults, but ultimately the coach deserves a major share of the blame... As he leaves the England job, he may reflect that, this time, his critics were correct."

The News of the World bemoaned the "same old penalty pain" - England losing the fifth of its six penalty shootouts in the last 16 years.

It did spread the blame a bit, lambasting "looney Wayne Rooney" for a "split-second of red-mist madness" that gave Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo "no choice but to send him off", leaving England to play with 10 men.

But the top-selling tabloid - notorious for its exposes of Eriksson's spicy love life - groaned at the "25 million pound fortune" the Swede has reputedly amassed in his five years as England manager.

"He leaves his post today, taking with him the king's ransom that was his reward for five years of mediocrity... Eriksson's last game will forever be a tale of what might have been," sighed columnist Martin Samuel.

The Sunday Times coolly rated each member of Saturday's rival sides, giving Rio Ferdinand an eight out of 10 ("his distribution was superb") and, at the other extreme, Rooney a four out of 10 ("let himself and his team down").

Top marks went to Portugal's Nuno Valente - nine out of 10 - for marking David Beckham's substitute Aaron Lennon "brilliantly".

Colour photos of Rooney stamping on the leg of Portugal's Ricardo Carvalho featured in many of Sunday's sports pages, along with inevitable snapshots of the WAGS - the shopaholic wives and girlfriends of the England side.

The Sunday Telegraph concluded that Eriksson "will be spared the most savage of post mortems" thanks to Rooney's dismissal.

"However, he still disappears into the night, jobless and with his reputation sorely damaged by his failure to take England any further than the quarter-finals of a major tournament."