England’s World Cup penalty shoot-out hoodoo is finally over after beating Colombia on spot-kicks in Moscow on Tuesday night.
Gareth Southgate’s side advanced to the 2018 World Cup quarter-finals after winning 4-3 on penalties, with Eric Dier converting the final spot-kick.
England will now take on Sweden at the Cosmos Arena in Samara on Saturday afternoon, hoping to book their place in the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1990.
England fans - those in Russia and the rest watching at home - feared the worst when Yerry Mina’s dramatic late equaliser cancelled out Harry Kane’s opener and sent the tie to extra-time.
Their national team had never won a penalty shoot-out at a World Cup finals prior to this tournament, and Southgate’s men looked bereft of confidence during the first-haft of extra-time following Mina’s headed goal.
Their worst fears looked set to come true when David Ospina saved England’s third spot-kick, taken by Jordan Henderson, but the mood changed when Mateus Uribe smashed the next penalty off the crossbar.
Kieran Tripper scored afterwards before Jordan Pickford saved from Carlos Bacca, and then Dier confidently stroked home the winning penalty.
How Cristiano Ronaldo inadvertently helped England
It really did happen. England had won a penalty shoot-out at a World Cup. But how?
Well, even though he won’t have a clue about it, Cristiano Ronaldo may have inadvertently helped England beat Colombia.
The Telegraph revealed in May that the Football Association encouraged England’s players to copy the penalty taking style of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner - specially taking their time before striking the ball.
Ronaldo, who has scored penalties in big matches for both Real Madrid and Portugal, always ensures he’s completely focused before striking the ball and gives himself all the time he needs to get composed.
The FA's research clearly benefitted England
The FA felt that England’s players had taken spot-kicks too quickly in the past and believed this was one of the reasons they’ve performed so poorly in the past.
Cheers, Cristiano!
The FA also encouraged players to take part in indoor golf-putting competitions during their stays at hotels and to deliberately heckle each other to see how they react under pressure.
“We’ve got a research team on it to come back with some interesting findings,” FA technical director Dan Ashworth said.
“How are we going to get over that? Because if you’re going to win a World Cup, statistics will tell you that you’ll have to get through one round on penalties. And they had some quite inventive ways of how they dealt with that.”
The FA’s research team have come up trumps this summer. Perhaps penalties aren’t a lottery, after all…