Here we go again. England are into the knockout rounds of a World Cup 2026, and now the threat of penalties loom over every nerve-jangling game, with Argentina next in the semi-finals.
England’s relationship with shootouts was, for a long time, a tortured one. They were knocked out of Italia ‘90 by West Germany via the heartbreak of penalties, and suffered defeats by Argentina (1998) and Portugal (2006) in the same way.