According to The Daily Telegraph, the England team is practicing penalties to avoid another disappointing elimination in a shootout.
In the last European Championship, Gareth Southgate led England to the final, only to lose to Italy in a penalty shootout. In the World Cup, England reached the quarter-finals but lost to France in a penalty shootout. With the European Championship entering the knockout stage, all matches could potentially go to penalties, and England must be prepared.
Reports indicate that besides regular penalty-takers like Kane, Palmer, and Tony, other players, including defenders, are practicing penalties after each training session. However, Southgate remains secretive about the details of the practice to avoid revealing England’s penalty strategy to opponents.
Defender Konza revealed, “We have extra training after sessions, some players practice penalties. While we haven’t considered a penalty shootout against Slovakia, if it happens, we’ll be fully prepared.” Another defender, Guess, said, “We’ve put a lot of work in, making sure we can score penalties is one of them.”
In England’s last 15 major tournament matches, they’ve been drawn into penalty shootouts nine times. Unfortunately, they lost seven of those, including the crucial matches against Italy and France. Notably, in the last eight European Championships, only two champion teams reached the final without a penalty shootout.
Penalty shootouts are becoming more frequent in major tournaments. Between 2000 and 2012, each major tournament saw an average of two penalty shootouts. After that, the number soared to four per tournament.
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