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Bukayo Saka believes England have shown they can do whatever it takes to win following their battling displays en route to the Euro 2024 semi-finals.
The Arsenal forward scored the equaliser to cancel out Breel Embolo’s strike as England went on to beat Switzerland on penalties and set up a last-four meeting with the Netherlands.
Saka scored his spot-kick to banish the ghosts of his miss in the Euro 2020 final shoot-out defeat to Italy.
The victory came just six days on from the last-16 success over Slovakia, where Jude Bellingham’s stoppage-time overhead kick took the game to extra-time.
“I think we’ve shown in two back-to-back games, we’ve gone to 120 minutes and won them both. It shows that we can do whatever it takes to win,” Saka told Lions’ Den.
“Whether it’s in the 90th minute or the 120th minute, whether it’s in a penalty shoot-out, we can do it in any way so that gives us a lot of confidence as well.”
Saka was inundated with praise for his man-of-the-match performance and the way he nervelessly scored from 12 yards.
But it was the adulation of former England skipper David Beckham that he enjoyed most.
“That’s the smile we all needed to see… Courage & happiness @bukayosaka87, well done to the lads @england,” Beckham posted on Instagram.
Asked about the post and after some light-ribbing from Luke Shaw that he had not stopped talking about Beckham’s post, Saka replied: “Listen, the first truth he’s said today!
“I showed him this yesterday – I was buzzing when I saw because obviously, you know, to have that support from Becks is… (shakes head, raises hand and smiles).
“Come on, man. Come on, you can forgive me!
“In extra-time I sort of had the feeling it could be penalties, so I was ready in the mind battle for when the game had finished.
“I tried to focus more on success than failure. You know, if I think about failing or missing then it gets me down, gets me worried and then I get tense.”
