Phil Foden praised coach Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for his role in England’s penalty triumph as the former Netherlands striker now looks to deny his homeland a place in the Euro 2024 final.
Gareth Southgate’s side are through to a third semi-final in four major tournament appearances after Saturday’s quarter-final shoot-out win against Switzerland.
Jude Bellingham praised assistant coach Hasselbaink afterwards and said his penalty nous helped them to that spot-kick victory, setting up Wednesday’s Signal Iduna Park semi-final.
⏪ Last time out against the Netherlands📊 Head to head record🔢 Key statistics
Here's everything you need to know about our #EURO2024 semi-final opponents 👇
— England (@England) July 8, 2024
The former Netherlands international has been part of Southgate’s coaching set-up since last March and is now focused on helping England down the Dutch in Dortmund.
England forward Foden told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Jimmy’s been working hard with us to do penalties after training in case it goes to a shoot-out.
“They were just full of confidence and slotted them away.
“Jimmy’s got a lot of experience in the game, he knows his stuff. He’s been taking a few of us after training to practice penalties.
“I feel like when I first came into the England side, we were maybe practicing them too much and there wasn’t really a coach taking them.
“Now we have Jimmy for that reason to only take a couple, not overdo it. Practice your spot where you put it and stick with it. There’s a lot of work that goes into it off the field.
“I feel like we’ve got the balance just right now. It does help that we’ve got some of the best penalty-takers in the world like Ivan (Toney) and Cole (Palmer), who never look like missing.
“I don’t feel like it is a lottery. We put the time and effort in. We don’t want to make it a lottery, we want to have that extra one or two per cent in our favour.”
