England and Gareth Southgate no longer paying the penalty from the spot

Football Mad -

England added another success to their penalty shoot-out record under Gareth Southgate to win their Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland.

Southgate, one of the faces of England’s past spot-kick heartbreaks, has overseen three shoot-out wins from four as manager and here, the PA news agency looks at England’s record.

Southgate’s shoot-outs

England had won only one of seven shoot-outs prior to Southgate taking charge in 2016, but set about rewriting their record from the 2018 World Cup onwards.

The last-16 tie there brought a 4-3 win over Colombia on penalties. Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Kieran Trippier and Eric Dier scored and though Jordan Henderson’s effort was saved, Mateus Uribe missed for Colombia before Jordan Pickford denied Carlos Bacca.

Pickford himself scored England’s fifth penalty against Switzerland in the following year’s Nations League third place play-off before saving from Josip Drmic to seal a 6-5 success. Harry Maguire, Ross Barkley, Jadon Sancho, Raheem Sterling and Dier were England’s other scorers.

Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold scored on Saturday after Pickford saved from Manuel Akanji.

For Saka, it was a chance to lay the ghost of England’s one, crucial, shoot-out loss under Southgate. The Arsenal forward, along with Rashford and Sancho, failed as England lost 3-2 on penalties to Italy in the Euro 2020 final despite Pickford saving from Andrea Belotti and Jorginho.

Trust the process

Shoot-outs are often labelled a ‘lottery’ but Southgate and England are at pains to highlight the work that goes into success.

Widely circulated pictures of Pickford’s drink bottle, with detailed instructions for each potential Swiss taker, demonstrated England’s research while squad players like Palmer and Toney are regular successful takers at club level.

“We think we’ve got a good process,” Southgate said after the match. “We’ve been in four, we’ve won three.

“Of course, we got absolutely crucified for the one we lost and that’s always going to be the case because it is outcome-based.

“We refined that process, we have more regular penalty-takers in the squad now and more that have been in shoot-outs.”

Palmer scored nine penalties for Chelsea last season and another in England’s warm-up win over Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold, though not regulars from the spot, also have perfect records – Alexander-Arnold’s senior penalties have all been in shoot-outs.

Toney has now scored 38 out of 41 in his career, Saka 14 of 16 and Kane, substituted off against Switzerland, 76 of 86.

Ghosts of the past

Gareth Southgate reacts after his penalty shoot-out miss against Germany at Euro 96 (PA)

Southgate famously missed as England went out of Euro 96 on penalties to Germany in the semi-final, one of a string of spot-kick failures prior to 2018.

Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle were the fall guys against what was then West Germany at the 1990 World Cup – Saka’s redemption echoes that of Pearce earlier in Euro 96, scoring against Spain in England’s only win in their first seven shoot-outs.

Argentina’s Carlos Roa saved from Paul Ince and David Batty at the 1998 World Cup, while Portugal’s Ricardo thwarted England on two occasions.

He denied Darius Vassell then peeled his gloves off to score the winner at Euro 2004 before saving from Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and late substitute Jamie Carragher at the 2006 World Cup.

Ashley Young and Ashley Cole failed in another loss to Italy in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals.