Before the penalty shootout loss in the Euro 2020 final, England got revenge in a shootout against Colombia in 2018. Jordan Pickford stopped Carlos Bacca’s shot in a crucial moment.
As the World Cup heads into the knockout rounds, Jordan Pickford told Gabriel Clarke of ITV that he would step up, take a penalty for England, and (hopefully) stop a few.
Pickford said, “If I’m asked, I’ll take a penalty.” “But I hope my main goal is to save the penalties and give the guys who take them a chance to make their shots and score.”
Since it seems likely that England will be involved in some shootout drama, the Everton goalkeeper was also asked to talk about how the team was getting ready for that.
“We have a system. We haven’t done much because group games are complex, and you want to get out of the group first, “Pickford told us.
“You don’t want to talk too much about penalties, but now that we’re in the knockout stages, we need to step it up a bit and get fully ready, just like we’ve always done.”
In last year’s Euro 2020 final against Italy, Pickford made two great saves on Andrea Belotti and then on Jorginho, who was good at taking penalties. Still, England’s Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all missed their chances.
Rashford has already said he would be happy to take another penalty for England and is even looking forward to the chance, no matter how much pressure it might bring.
Given how well he has done so far in the tournament, you wouldn’t bet against him scoring a hat trick.
On the other hand, Saka has scored every penalty he has taken for Arsenal so far. In October, he scored calmly from the penalty spot to give the Gunners a 3-2 win over Liverpool.
