July 14th 2024.
The tension was palpable as England prepared to face off against Spain in the Euro 2024 final. For years, the fear of a penalty shootout has haunted England fans, but this time, there was a glimmer of hope. Under the leadership of Gareth Southgate, the Three Lions had shown significant improvement in their penalty record. Just last week, they had triumphed over Switzerland in a nail-biting shootout.
Looking at the squad, it was clear that England had some strong penalty-takers in their ranks. With the likes of Harry Kane, Cole Palmer, and Ivan Toney, the team was well-stocked with players who excelled from the spot. As the anticipation grew, fans eagerly awaited updates from The Agency's live blog covering the game.
Taking a closer look at England's penalty record throughout history, it was clear that there was room for improvement. Out of the eleven penalty shootouts they had been a part of in major tournaments, they had only won four. In comparison, Spain had won seven out of thirteen. However, there was a glimmer of hope for England as their very first victory on penalties was against Spain in Euro 1996.
Under Southgate's leadership, England had won three out of four shootouts, including the memorable victory against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup and against Switzerland in both the 2019 Nations League and Euro 2024. The only defeat under Southgate's reign was in the Euro 2020 final, where Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka missed their penalties and were subjected to racist abuse.
But despite the heartbreaking loss, England had a strong team of penalty-takers. In the quarter-final against Switzerland, all five of their spot-kicks were converted, with the first taker maintaining a perfect record throughout his career.
One of England's most reliable penalty-takers was Cole Palmer. The Chelsea star had never missed a penalty in his career and had scored all nine of his attempts in the Premier League last season. He had also opened his account for England in the warm-up game against Bosnia and was the first one to step up against Switzerland.
Another key player from the spot was Trent Alexander-Arnold. With a perfect record of eight out of eight penalties, he had scored the winning spot-kick in the quarter-final. While he had never taken one for the senior team in normal or extra time, he had a 100% record from the spot for England's U19s and had also converted penalties for Liverpool in the FA Cup, League Cup, and European Super Cup.
Conor Gallagher was also a reliable penalty-taker, with five out of five for Chelsea's U18s. He had also scored one for West Brom in the League Cup, maintaining his perfect record.
Ivan Toney, who had scored his only England goal against Belgium earlier in the tournament, had displayed his impressive "no-look" technique against Switzerland. He had been successful in eight out of nine shootouts in his career and was a valuable option for England to have from the bench.
Eberechi Eze had missed his first penalty for QPR in 2019 but had since scored eight out of eight attempts. This included two successful penalties in the Premier League and one each for England's U21s and in the League Cup.
Harry Kane, who had scored twice as many penalties as any other player in the squad, had a perfect record of 16 consecutive successful penalties since his miss in the World Cup 2022 quarter-final. Despite being substituted before the shootout against Switzerland, he had also scored in regular time during the semi-final against the Netherlands.
Bukayo Saka had famously missed the decisive kick in the Euro 2020 final against Italy. However, he had since established himself as Arsenal's first-choice penalty-taker and had only missed one out of thirteen attempts since then. He had also converted all four of his penalties in shootouts.
Anthony Gordon had only taken one senior penalty in normal time, which he had scored. He had a 100% record in domestic shootouts and had scored eight out of ten overall. Jarrod Bowen had a slightly patchy record of six out of nine at club level, but had scored in his only shootout against Manchester City in the League Cup.
Ollie Watkins had scored four out of nine penalties in regular time, but had not taken one since missing in May 2023. However, he had a perfect record of two out of two in shootouts, including one in the Europa Conference League this season. After scoring the winning goal against the Netherlands, he was a strong candidate to take a spot-kick if needed.
Kieran Trippier had converted the crucial fourth penalty against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup, helping England secure their first shootout victory in over twenty years. However, he had missed both of his penalties in regular time and in a League Cup shootout last season. Despite this, he was known for his prowess from free kicks.
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