Euro 2024 is entering its final week and only four nations remain involved – with England still one of them following a dramatic penalty shootout victory over Switzerland in Dusseldorf. Gareth Southgate had to turn to his substitutes and squad players to get them a late equaliser and subsequent win from 12 yards, with Trent Alexander-Arnold drilling in the decisive effort.
Now they’ll face Netherlands in the last four after their comeback win over Turkey – while Spain and France will meet in the other semi-final.
Gareth Southgate spoke after the game about his pride in the squad overcoming challenges and pointed out this side has overcome the demons of previous tournaments when it comes to penalties: “We’ve been in four and we won three. We got crucified for the one we lost but it’s outcome based,” he said after knocking out the Swiss. “We have more regular penaly takers now than then [against Italy] and more who have been in shootouts. We have a calm process but the players still have to deal with it the way they did.”
Now it’s all about recovery ahead of Wednesday’s meeting in Dortmund, and honing the tactics to help them reach a second men’s European Championship final in three years. Follow all the latest news and England analysis and reaction below:
The six-year behind-the-scenes process which led to England’s perfect penalties
England beat Switzerland on penalties in the Euro 2024 quarter-final thanks to a changed secret approach that involved rethinking every detail of a penalty shootout, right down to the steps that players take and where they should look. One insight was even to not practise too much, as this can have a detrimental effect on nerves.
The Football Association have been so protective of these decisive tie-winning approaches that they stopped players like Jordan Pickford and Ezri Konsa going into too much detail about the “process” after Saturday’s quarter-final win, but some of the elements have been revealed in a book by an influential former staff member. Chris Markham, who is now sporting director at Bolton Wanderers, previously worked as Game Insights Lead at the FA for four years and through the watershed 2018 World Cup.
He was personally thanked by Gareth Southgate after that crucial 2018 last-16 win over Colombia in Russia. The manager first consulted Markham in 2017, before staging a wider meeting to convince the players in March 2018. Although the Euro 2020 final shootout against Italy showed there was still work to do, the results were seen in the five perfect penalties against Switzerland.
Gareth Southgate’s England revolution shouldn’t be overlooked just because it’s dull
England have been playing international football for 152 years but it may be wrong to throw it back that far. They could have ventured to World Cups before the Second World War but, in their arrogance and isolationism, chose not to; they first played in a tournament in 1950, 74 years ago.
Since then, there were four semi-finals: 1966, 1968 (in a four-team tournament), 1990 and 1996, only two on home soil. Then came the Southgate years and there have been three more. They are coming at three-year intervals: 2018, 2021 (in the delayed Euro 2020) and now 2024.
Maybe England are living in the golden years, even if they don’t know it. They have ploughed the most prosaic path possible to the semi-finals of Euro 2024 but they are there. Gareth Southgate’s three semi-finals put him ahead of Alf Ramsey, with two, and Bobby Robson and Terry Venables, who reached one apiece.
England Euro 2024 news
Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s Euro 2024 coverage, bringing you the latest news and build up from England’s camp in Germany.
England scraped through the quarter-finals against Switzerland on penalties, and will want to improve against the Dutch.
Source: independent.co.uk
