There will be no kisses from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth for Italy striker Mario Balotelli after his team wilted in the Brazilian heat against Costa Rica and slumped to a 1-0 defeat.

Having already lost to the Italians, England needed them to win against Costa Rica to have any chance of making the knockout stages, and Balotelli seized the opportunity to make mischief.

“If we beat Costa Rica I want a kiss, obviously on the cheek, from the UK Queen,” Balotelli had tweeted before Friday’s game, but aside from a couple of chances he did precious little to warrant a display of affection from the monarch.

Superbly marshalled by Costa Rica’s unheralded Columbus Crew defender Giancarlo Gonzalez, Balotelli got in behind the defence twice in quick succession in the first half.

He had one shot parried by Keylor Navas and lobbed another effort wide of goal with the Costa Rican keeper stranded.

But in the second half the striker created nothing of note as the Central Americans hung on for a famous victory thanks to Bryan Ruiz’s headed goal a minute before the break.

Balotelli had been similarly anonymous for large parts of Italy’s game against England, but at least he popped up to head the winner in a 2-1 victory.

The narrow win was enough to guarantee qualification for the knockout stages for Costa Rica, with Italy needing at least a draw in their final group game against Uruguay to advance.

As yet, Balotelli’s Twitter account is silent on who the object of his affections should be if they reach the last 16.