Gareth Southgate’s England booked their place in their third semi-final in four tournaments after Trent Alexander-Arnold smashed away the decisive spot kick to in their shootout victory against Switzerland following their keenly-contested 1-1 draw after 120 minutes.
Alexander-Arnold, who was relegated from the starting team, came off the bench in extra-time to net the crucial kick after Jordan Pickford had saved from Manuel Akanji – who had the only miss in the lottery.
The win meant a third consecutive Euro 2024 quarter-final to go to extra-time, with two of them going to penalties.Bukayo Saka levelled with a gem of a goal after Breel Embolo had put the Swiss in front after 75 minutes.
The Arsenal forward, who failed to convert for England in the previous Euros final shootout defeat to Italy, stepped up to score confidently in front of the England fans.
Speaking of Saka, Southgate was full of praise, saying:
“He is so brave, he’s one of our best so we were never in any question that he was going to take one.”
Meanwhile, Saka said: “To come back from something like that was really difficult. I used that to make me stronger. Today I took the chance and I’m happy.”Hopefully next game we can win in the 90 minutes but if this is what it takes, we’ll do anything.”
The Three Lions’ next battle is on Wednesday in a semi-final in Dortmund against Netherlands, and though England will most definitely need to find more accuracy and intensity in the final third than they showed on Saturday, the boost gained from another shootout win after decades of pain will be invaluable.
“Incredible,” responsed Alexander-Arnold. “These are the goals and aims that we set for ourselves. The team showed a lot of character, belief, a lot of heart and spirit out there. We dug deep when it mattered most.”
