- Listen to Everything is just beginningEUROS DAILY: Gareth Southgate has gone a bit rogue… and his mask has fallen
- Pickford saved Manuel Akanji’s first penalty for Switzerland on Saturday night
- England will now face the Netherlands in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Gary Lineker has asked Jordan Pickford to ditch his water bottle cheat sheet for the remainder of the Euro 2024 competition.
Everton’s goalkeeper saved Manuel Akanji’s penalty on Saturday as England advanced to the semi-finals of the competition.
Akanji’s miss proved decisive as Alexander-Arnold completed a 5-3 sudden-death victory that sets up a semi-final clash against the Netherlands.
Pickford in particular was hailed for his penalty-taking exploits, with fans praising his water bottle which included a list of where each Swiss penalty-taker was most likely to hit it.
In the case of Akanji’s penalty, the scoresheet read “dive left” next to his name, which Pickford did at the time.
Jordan Pickford looks on as he holds his water bottle with a list of penalty takers on it during the Euro 2024 quarter-final match
Gary Lineker has asked Pickford to ditch his water bottle ‘cheat sheet’ for the rest of the tournament.
However, former Tottenham and Barcelona striker Lineker has given Pickford some stern advice.
Speaking on the Rest is Football podcast, he said: ‘One player is going to look at that bottle.
“If you are listening, do it differently, do it on a different piece of paper or do it in the mail.”
Following England’s victory, Luke Shaw and Bukayo Saka described the penalty shoot-out as “very calculated”.
Shaw was analysing England’s perfect penalty procession and insisted he never doubted Alexander-Arnold would miss in a high-risk situation.
“I was next to him the whole time and he was very confident, he seemed very relaxed, calm, like we said, we have our routines anyway and we practiced them a lot so everyone knew what they were doing,” she told Lions Den.
‘It was very calculated and we all knew what was going to happen, so when he stepped up I had complete faith in him and I knew he was going to score.
“Declan was our speaker, he calmed everyone down and told them to do their breathing techniques and manifest them. It was necessary,” he added.
Jordan Pickford’s water bottle told him to ‘dive left’ on Akanji’s penalty, which he did.
Murat Yakin’s Swiss side took England to penalties on Saturday evening.
The Brentford striker showed no signs of nerves as he took his incredible 12-yard strike to the international stage in England’s penalty shoot-out victory.
Toney was one of five successful takers for the Three Lions, and his effort included his famous two-step run while just staring at the goalkeeper.
Foster, who was unsuccessful in his efforts to thwart Toney’s spot-kicks in 2020 as Watford goalkeeper, revealed the problems presented by a penalty from the 28-year-old.
“It makes you look like a complete idiot,” Foster said on the Football Fill-In podcast. “While you’re standing there and you’re looking at him and he’s looking at you and he’s walking calmly toward the ball.
“And you think, ‘Do you know what you’re doing here? ‘ And then you wait so long until the point where you have to make a decision. You have to do it.
“But he’s still waiting for you and will just leave you in the farthest corner. You have the confidence to be able to do it.
“He took a penalty for England (against Belgium) and you know he’s going to score. I had a lot of faith in him. He uses exactly the same technique and kicks the ball into the corner.”
