Gareth Southgate says he will take his time to decide whether to continue as England boss - and refused to blame Harry Kane for the quarter-final defeat to France.
The Three Lions were knocked out of the World Cup after Kane's late penalty miss consigned them to defeat against Les Bleus.
Southgate has now been in charge for six years, previously guiding England to the World Cup semis in 2018 and the final of Euro 2020, but still has two years left on his current contract.
"Whenever I've finished tournaments, I've needed time to make correct decisions because emotionally you go through so many different feelings," he said.
"The energy it takes through these tournaments is enormous, so I want to make the right decision, whatever that is for the team, for England, for the FA. I've got to be sure that whatever decision I make is the right one - I think it's right to take a bit of time to do that because I know in the past how my feelings have fluctuated in the immediate aftermath of tournaments.
"Tonight there's too much in my head to think logically about any of that. I think we've given a really good account of ourselves to the rest of the world but in the end, only one team wins. We wanted to win and tonight we've just fallen short."
Kane equalled Wayne Rooney's England goalscoring record with a penalty early in the second half against his Spurs team-mate Hugo Lloris, but fired over the bar when the Three Lions were awarded a second spot kick late in the game.
"It's very difficult when you get a second penalty, and of course against a goalkeeper that knows you really well - there's a lot involved in that situation," Southgate said.
"Even the best are going to miss at times - there's no one I'd rather have in that situation, and if we had one tomorrow I'd feel exactly the same way.
"He's very, very low but he's got nothing to reproach himself for - we're in the position we are as a team because of his leadership and his goals over a long period of time.
"Tonight the result is the result because of 100 minutes of football and lots of things that happened at both ends - even if that goes in, we've still got a lot to do to win the game. We've always stuck together as a team - we win and lose together.
"I thought his performance tonight was his best of the tournament. It's cruel for him because he will feel disappointed in himself, but he shouldn't."
England generally performed well at the tournament, and had the better of much of the game against France.
"My immediate feelings are there are less things to reflect on to have possibly done differently at this tournament," Southgate said.
"The flow of the game tonight, the way we responded after half time, the messages we gave, when we conceded the second goal it was one of our strongest periods of the game. However you go out of a tournament is always really difficult, but I can only say the pride I have in the players. The way they've gone about it has been exceptional.
"They've pushed a top nation all the way tonight - more possession, more attempts on goal. We felt we could come here and win the tournament, so tonight it's very difficult.
"I think it's probably the best we've played against a major nation across my period in charge, but in the end we've fallen short. The scoreline is all that matters."
Matchwinner Olivier Giroud admitted that France enjoyed some fortune to set up a semi-final against Morocco on Wednesday, as they attempt to retain the trophy they won in Russia in 2018.
"We were a bit lucky because Kane missed the penalty, but we fought for each other - it reminded me of the mentality we had in 2018," he said. "I hope we can go far in this tournament, this group deserves to get there.
"The match tonight reminded me of the semi final against Belgium in 2018, when we went ahead, then fought tooth and nail to keep ourselves ahead. England came back into the match and put us under pressure, but we showed that we could be dangerous on the counter attack. What are important in these types of matches are the little details, to take your chances when you get them. That's what we did. It was an unbelievable feeling to score."
'David Beckham was desperate to play in my squad, but I didn't want to bring him along and waste the FA’s money: I had to pick the strongest players': Great Britain coach reflects on Becks snub as 'one of the toughest decisions' of his career
‘Big Sam gets a bad rap as a bit of a dinosaur, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. He was ahead of the curve on many things – I loved playing for him’: Ex-Bolton star sets record straight on Allardyce
