Jordan Pickford made a crucial penalty save from Manuel Akanji as England progressed to the Euro 2024 semi finals.

Unseen footage from inside the stadium showed how England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford got inside the head of Manuel Akanji before producing a crucial penalty save.

Pickford has become something of a penalty specialist for the Three Lions and England’s No.1 came up with heroics again in the quarter final in Dusseldorf.

After a 1-1 draw following Bukayo Saka quickly cancelling out Breel Embolo’s strike, the clash went all the way to penalties.

 

All five of England’s takers did the business, with Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold all finding the net to secure a 5-3 shoot-out victory.

Image: Getty

Manchester City defender Akanji was the only player to miss after stepping up first for the Swiss.

But the BBC’s feed did not quite cover the lengths Pickford went to put off Akanji.

 

He spent a considerable amount of time delaying the taking of the penalty

As shared by presenter Rob Armstrong, footage from the stands showed Pickford taking his time, putting his water bottle and towel down before speaking to the referee Daniele Orsato.

He then guessed right to make the save after having the words “dive left” on his bottle in regards to Akanji’s placement.

Image: Getty

Pickford has now saved four penalties out of 14 in major tournament shoot-outs but the Everton shostopper did reveal afterwards that the referee didn’t allow his normal process during the shoot-out.

 

Speaking to ITV, he said: “Firstly, the referee didn’t let me do my usual process, so I’ve got to adapt… because I like to give the lads the ball. I could only do it for the first time and luckily, I saved it.”

Alexander-Arnold scored the winning penalty to set up a semi final showdown with the Netherlands on Wednesday.

The Dutch came from behind to beat Turkey 2-1 in Berlin.

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