Jordan Pickford will contest his third semi-final in a major international tournament after his penalty save proved to be the critical difference that saw England past Switzerland in another dramatic penalty shoot-out at Euro 2024.
The Everton star got down well to block Manuel Akanji’s opening penalty after the game itself had ended 1-1 in Düsseldorf. All five England players scored their spot-kicks, booking Gareth Southgate’s much-maligned side a date with the Netherlands in the last four next Wednesday.
After 75 goalless and tightly-contested minutes, Switzerland had rocked England back on their heels with the first goal when a deflected cross fell to Breel Embolo in front of goal and he held off Kyle Walker to force it over the line from close range.
England were level within five minutes, though, as Bakayo Saka took advantage of Declan Rice’s decoy run to whip a low shot in off the far post from the edge of the box to force extra time.
Pickford was almost caught out by a wicked corner that looked as though it might sneak directly in but it smacked off the angle instead. He then made an important save to deny substitute Almoudin as penalties loomed, a strong-handed parry to push away the Burnley man’s powerful drive.
Playing in his fourth shoot-out for England, Pickford added to his tally of three saves when his pre-game preparation paid off and he correctly dived to his left to save Akanji’s placed effort off a short run-up.
From there on, England’s penalty takers showed uncharacteristic confidence, nerve and skill to shrug off the nation’s previous failings in such pressure situations from the spot to score all five penalties against Yann Sommer, and progress to the semi-finals.
Pickford admitted afterwards that the referee’s threats to book him for his gamesmanship between spot-kicks meant he couldn’t go through his normal process of trying to break the concentration of his opponents but images of his water bottle with researched directives over how to approach each penalty taker demonstrated the edge he used to help England through.
In the last match of the quarter-final round, Ronald Koeman’s Netherlands overcame a 1-0 deficit to score twice in the space of five minutes and dump spirited Turkey out of the competition.