Despite once again etching his name into England goalkeeping folklore, Jordan Pickford made one tiny mistake at Euro 2024.
Vitally preventing Manuel Akanji from twelve yards in the first spot-kick of the game, Pickford's heroics set the tone for the Three Lions' devastating performance from twelve yards, as Gareth Southgate's men prevailed against Switzerland. Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold all scored as England made it to the last four in the most dramatic of circumstances.
Pickford, who was kept relatively busy over 120 minutes of back-and-forth action, was handed a water bottle prior to the penalties like he was at World Cup 2018 before the successful shootout vs Colombia. And the ex-Sunderland man may have saved a Newcastle player's penalty had he read the instructions presented to him by the penalty team.
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With notes on every player listed, a photo leaked online indicated that Newcastle United defender Fabian Schar would opt to go to Pickford's left from the penalty spot, with Pickford told to do so. In perhaps a misread, or a last-minute change by the goalkeeper, the instruction was to 'FAKE RIGHT - DIVE LEFT'. However, Pickford faked LEFT and dived RIGHT.
Had he followed the instruction, Schar's effort to Pickford's left was very savable. Schar's penalty didn't matter in the end, however, with England winning 5-3 overall as Alexander-Arnold smashed home to set up Wednesday's semi-final showdown with the Netherlands in Dortmund. But the water bottle reveals the level of detail available to goalkeepers to help them gain not only a psychological advantage in such tense scenarios.
"I thought I hid it well but obviously not," Pickford joked during his post-match media duties on Saturday evening. "I do my process and the referee stopped me from doing what I usually like to do, but I still managed to save one and give the lads the opportunity. I believed in my mentality, that I was going to save at least one penalty in the shootout, which I did and the lads [then] executed them fantastic."
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