England Under-21 manager Stuart Pearce believes that his side's disallowed goal was fair after Italy had an earlier penalty decision turned down in their opening match of the U21 European Championship.

Pearce's side suffered a 1-0 defeat in their first match of the tournament after a late Lorenzo Insigne free kick proved enough to win it for the Azzurri.

Craig Dawson thought he had given the Three Lions the lead with his header early in the second half, only for the referee to chalk it off due to a foul, which Pearce feels was karma after the Italians had been denied an earlier spot kick.

"If it was a correct decision, well done to the sixth official I am not going to moan about any decision as long as it was the correct decision," Pearce told Sky Sports News. "I thought they should have had a penalty first half personally so it evens itself out, our performance we put on tonight wasn't good enough - maybe the nerves of the first game, we have played a hell of a lot better than that coming into this tournament.

"I thought we stuck in the game even though we were getting dominated in possession and movement, but we have to learn by these boys, we didn't play well enough that is for sure and we have to re-load again and get ready for Saturday.

"I don't think we had a enough legs getting in behind defence, their movement was clever and our movement was stagnant. We will have a look and feed it back into the players and come back on Saturday."

England play Norway on Saturday before facing hosts Israel in the final group game next Tuesday.