Just like the five shots confidently dispatched to beat Switzerland on Saturday, England’s conversion from one of the worst-performing countries in penalty shootouts to the current, confident unit, has nothing to do with luck.

England’s penalty problems are well documented and when Gareth Southgate took over as manager in 2016 he knew breaking that negative association was one of his most important tasks.

Ironically, it was his miss in the Euro 96 semi-final against Germany, or more specifically his decision to put his hand up to take a penalty when he was patently under-qualified to do so, that was at the heart of England’s problems.

Former defender-turned pundit Gary Neville spoke last week about how the kickers at the 2006 World Cup were decided by a casual competition in training that ended up with centre back Jamie Carragher among the nominated five.

In the quarter-final shootout against Portugal, he missed the decisive kick at the second attempt after taking his first before the referee had blown his whistle.

That casual approach and consequent regular failing was the background to the FA launching a remarkable plan to investigate everything about England’s relationship with shootouts, something applauded by Norwegian behavioural psychologist Geir Jordet in his book “Pressure. Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout”.

“I was surprised and ecstatic when I heard what they were doing because I hadn’t ever seen anything like it,” Jordet told Reuters in a recent interview.

The key man was Chris Markham, who spent four years as an analyst at the FA and was behind the 18-month project targeted specifically at winning a shootout at the 2018 World Cup on the back of losing five in a row.

“I found quotes from each of the last five England managers before Gareth Southgate, not including Sam Allardyce, that said either the penalty shootout was a lottery, penalties are all down to luck, or that you can’t practice that kind of pressure,” Markham told Jordet.

“From a psychological perspective, speaking about a lottery takes ownership away from the players and that was the thing for me, to give them it back.”

Southgate bought in to Markham’s vision, that drilled down to the minutia of the process, including run-up steps, angle, pace, breathing techniques, optimal areas of aiming and goalkeepers as well as how players behaved individually and towards each other after each shot, particularly a miss.

COLOMBIA VICTORY

It all paid off when England beat Colombia in the last 16 in Russia, and though they lost the Euro 2020 final shootout to Italy, they have now won three of their last four, including a Nations League playoff, all under Southgate.

That change in mentality was almost tangible in Duesseldorf. England played in extra-time as if they wanted penalties, while it was the Swiss who launched a series of frantic late assaults.

Harry Kane, England’s designated penalty taker, had been substituted by then but said he felt calm watching from the sidelines ahead of the shootout.

He had good reason to as Southgate, to his immense credit, had absorbed all Markham’s work, added his own “arm around the shoulder” support and was able to leave his selected shooters to what seemed their own, serene approaches.

It helped, but of was no coincidence, that England had five ideal men lined up. Cole Palmer, who has never missed a penalty, Ivan Toney, who has scored 31 of his 33, and Bukayo Saka are all regular spot-kick takers for their clubs, while Jude Bellingham and Trent Alexander-Arnold are world-class ball strikers.

All scored, with different types of kicks, and all celebrated wildly in front of the England fans behind the goal – another “trick” that Markham identified as helping the next man in line.

The other key component, of course, is a goalkeeper who can save at least one of the shots he faces.

Jordan Pickford had a list of all the Swiss players’ directional preferences taped to his water bottle but, just as importantly, were the “distraction” techniques he employed and identified as key by Jordet.

Pickford was nowhere to be seen as Manuel Akanji placed the ball on the spot for the first Swiss penalty, and after two separate discussions with the referee and a quick drink diversion, he took his place, dived in the direction his bottle notes told him to, and saved to give England an advantage they did not relinquish.

The FA’s media team has since stepped in to limit questions about penalty preparation, while Southgate, when asked about England’s change of approach, quipped: “Everybody else who used to work for the FA seems to have done that over a period of years. We’ll keep our counsel.”

-Reuters

Summary

• England target third major tournament final

• Dutch have attacking edge but doubts in defence

• England’s penalty prowess masks jaded attack

• Dutch must fight to reach final, Koeman says

The route to the last four of Euro 2024 has been a rocky one for the Netherlands and England, and a few flashes of their best quality in their semi-final showdown might be enough for either side to make the final.

England’s shootout win over Switzerland brought momentary euphoria, but it was more relief than redemption and Wednesday’s date with the Dutch in Dortmund may require a transformation in attack for them to reach a third major tournament final, against France or Spain.

England have limped into the last four with tepid performances against opponents they should on paper have beaten easily, while the Netherlands have yo-yoed through and were 20 minutes from elimination before their quarter-final fightback against Turkey.

The Dutch dazzled in their last-eight rout of Romania but have had to scramble too, having fallen behind in three of their four scoring games. Their three wins were all in regulation time, however, compared to one for England, and the Dutch have scored nearly double their number of goals at the tournament.

The Netherlands have the edge in attack, their nine goals at Euro 2024 coming from 20 attempts on target against 15 by an England side spearheaded by the usually lethal but currently subdued Harry Kane, Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham.

England improved against the Swiss but their five expertly struck penalties rescued an attack that again looked frustrated, with Bukayo Saka’s 80th-minute equaliser their first shot on target.

Netherlands do not have that problem and will bank on the tournament’s joint top scorer Cody Gakpo to and trouble an England defence that has been solid in contract with their jaded attack.

DOING SO WELL

England manager Gareth Southgate declined to discuss the Dutch after his side’s win over Switzerland, keeping media attention squarely on his players’ resilience in handling the intensity of penalties.

England’s troubles in front of goal were during matches he said were not normal, against crowded defences determined to stop them.

“These are national events with huge pressure, with really young men in the middle of it. Our team has been under enormous pressure from the start. They’re doing so well. So well,” Southgate said.

“We’re not able to score a load of goals at the moment. But again, we’ve played three teams that play back fives, very well organised defences.”

Southgate is again expected to stick to a similar lineup having been impervious to calls to shake things up or make substitutions earlier during the tournament.

The Dutch have blown hot and cold and will need to be stronger at the back to stand any chance of reaching their first final since their 1988 Euros triumph, their only major tournament success.

Austria and Turkey exploited Dutch defensive disorganisation at set-pieces and England will try to do the same.

Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman has also received criticism, hitting back at pundits who questioned his team’s commitment and saying his players showed a big heart in coming from behind to beat Turkey.

“We need to fight to win the semi-final,” Koeman said. “It will be a great night on Wednesday between two big nations historically. England have good players, but we have too.”

-Reuters

A strong Premier League influence on both sides could ensure an exciting game when England take on the Netherlands in the European Championship semi-finals, Dutch defender Micky van de Ven said on Monday.

The vast majority of the English squad are home-based while the 26-man Dutch squad at the tournament includes seven players at Premier League clubs

“If you see the quality of the players from both teams, I think you can expect that the level and the rhythm of the game will be really high,” Van de Ven told a press conference.

“Hopefully, it’s us that will have more of the ball than England so that it is England who do the running, but I expect a high intensity game,” said the Tottenham Hotspur defender, who has been used only as a substitute in Germany.

“We understand they have taken a lot of flak from the English media but they are in the semi-finals … that says all it needs to about the English team. I think they play defensively but we will go and analysis them properly tonight, but what I can say is they have a lot of quality.”

Cody Gakpo, who plays for Liverpool, said given the quality of players in the England setup he hoped for a really good game on Wednesday.

Gakpo, 25, moved to the Premier League two season ago with mixed results, having been forced to play in a variety of attacking roles, but at Euro 2024 has clearly shown he is best on the left wing. His three goals make him the tournament’s joint top scorer.

“I was a left wing before (moving to Liverpool) and that’s always been my preference but over the last one and a half years, the coach needed me to play somewhere else and I tried to do my best at it.”

The move to England had made him a better player, he added.

“I think a lot of changed in my life, moving country to Liverpool, a big big club, amazing club, amazing fans and very, very good players surrounding me as well.

“I learnt a lot from the manager (Juergen Klopp). That progressed me a lot as a person and as a player. I’m very happy with the move I made.”

Gakpo said the Dutch squad had felt confident in Germany.

“There was always belief in the group that we could go far. Apart from one match, the feeling has always been good,” he said, referring to the 3-2 loss to Austria which condemned the Dutch to third place in Group D and sent them into the last 16 as luck losers.

They have since beaten Romania 3-0 and Turkey 2-1.

“Hopefully, this is not the last you’ve seen of us,” Gakpo said.

-Reuters