According to The Telegraph, England is currently practicing penalties as a team to avoid being knocked out in the knockout stages again at the spot.
In the last European Championship, Southgate led England all the way to the final, but they ultimately lost to Italy in a penalty shootout. In the World Cup, England also reached the quarter-finals, but lost to France in a penalty shootout. The European Championship has entered the knockout stages, and all matches have the potential to be dragged into a penalty shootout, so England must be prepared for it.
According to reports, besides the few main penalty takers like Kane, Palmer and Tony who always practice penalties, other players including defenders also practice penalties after every training session. However, Southgate is currently keeping the details of the practice confidential, lest other opponents learn England’s penalty strategy.
Defender Konsa revealed: “We practice after training, some players practice penalties. Although we haven’t considered going to a penalty shootout against Slovakia, we will be fully prepared if we do.” Another defender, Gueiss, said: “We’ve done a lot of work, and making sure we score penalties is one of them.”
In England’s last 15 major tournament matches, they have been dragged into penalty shootouts 9 times, and unfortunately, they have lost 7 of them, including the two crucial matches against Italy and France. It is worth mentioning that in the last eight European Championships, only two champion teams have reached the final without going through a penalty shootout.
Penalty shootouts are becoming increasingly common in major tournaments. From 2000 to 2012, there were an average of two penalty shootouts per tournament, and since then, that number has soared to 4.
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