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England start practising penalties

From Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle in 1990 to Ashley Young and Ashley Cole in 2012, several stars have missed penalties to end England’s involvement in tournament finals — but Roy Hodgson’s current generation are already practising from 12 yards (10.9m) at Euro 2016.

From Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle in 1990 to Ashley Young and Ashley Cole in 2012, several stars have missed penalties to end England’s involvement in tournament finals — but Roy Hodgson’s current generation are already practising from 12 yards (10.9m) at Euro 2016.

“They get taken every day, we’ll wait and see,” said Hodgson after the 0-0 draw with Slovakia. “Penalties in training and penalties in front of a lot of people is a different thing as we in England well know.”

No other major country has such a poor record in penalty shoot-outs in major tournaments as England. On six occasions, their players have made the long, lonely walk to the spot and five times they have been defeated.

West Germany started the English tale of woe at the 1990 World Cup and the unified Germany rubbed salt in the wounds at Euro 1996.

Portugal twisted the knife in at both the 2004 Euros and the 2006 World Cup, and Italy sent England crashing out of the last Euros in 2012.

In the group stage, England have dominated all three matches only to waste a series of chances. This suggests their last 16 knock-out match in Nice against the runner-up from Group F (either Portugal, Iceland, Austria or Hungary) could go all the way.

That was not yet a prospect Hodgson was willing to contemplate in too much detail despite the training ground practice. “We’re not doomed to penalties, we’re not doomed not to score goals,” he said.

“We’re capable of winning a game in 90 minutes.” DPA

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