Nine things you need to know about penalties as England face the Netherlands

England’s five perfect penalties to beat Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals were a combination of practice, precision and performance under pressure.

But what if the semi-final against the Netherlands happens the same way? Can they really be this good again?

BBC Sport takes a close look at both teams’ penalty records and some of the secrets behind England’s “excellent penalty strategy”.

1. What is the Netherlands’ penalty shootout record?

• The Netherlands’ last penalty shootout was against Argentina, in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup (4-3 defeat on penalties). Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis had their penalties saved by Emiliano Martinez.

• The Netherlands have lost all four penalty shootouts in the semi-finals of previous major tournaments: Euro 1992 against Denmark; 1998 World Cup against Brazil; Euro 2000 against Italy; and 2014 World Cup against Argentina.

2. Who takes penalties for the Netherlands?

In the 4-3 penalty shootout defeat to Argentina in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals, this was the Netherlands’ penalty order:

1. Virgil van Dijk – saved

2. Steven Berghuis – saved

3. Teun Koopmeiners – scored

4. Wout Weghorst – scored

5. Luuk de Jong

With Berghuis, Koopmeiners and De Jong not in Koeman’s Euro 2024 squad, here is a selection of other potential Dutch penalty takers.

*Only non-shooting statistics available via Opta

• Memphis Depay – scored 32 of 43 career penalties (74% conversation rate)

• Wout Weghorst – scored 18 of 27 (66%)

• Steven Bergwijn – scored 10 out of 10 (100%)

• Georginio Wijnaldum – scored seven of nine (78%)

• Joey Veerman – scored four of seven (57%)

• Cody Gakpo – scored four out of five (80%)

• Donyell Malen – scored three out of five (60%)

• Xavi Simons – scored three out of four (75%)

• Denzel Dumfries – scored three out of three (100%)

3. What is England’s penalty shootout record?

• England have won three of the last four penalty shootouts in all competitions: a 2018 World Cup win against Colombia; a 2018-19 Nations League victory against Switzerland, a Euro 2020 final defeat against Italy; and the victory over Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024.

• England have scored 18 of the last 19 penalties, including penalties. The only miss in this series was from Harry Kane in the 2-1 quarter-final defeat against France in the 2022 World Cup. Kane had scored from the penalty spot earlier in the game.

4. Who are England’s best penalty takers?

5. Pickford bottle hit 75% of penalties

Pickford has saved four of the 14 penalties he has faced in shootouts at major tournaments for England.

And if he had followed the instructions on his bottle exactly, he could have saved two of Switzerland’s four quarter-final penalties…

Pickford Bottle Instructions Versus What Happened

1. Akanji:

Water bottle instructions: “Dive to the left”

Pickford: Dived to the left

Result: Saved

2.Char:

Water bottle instructions: “Fake right, dive left”

Pickford: (Opposite) Faked left, dove right

Result: Scored to Pickford’s left

3. Shaqiri:

Water bottle instructions: “Dive to the left”

Pickford: Dived to the left

Result: Scored to Pickford’s left, above his dive

4. Amdouni:

Water bottle instructions: “Hold – Dive left – Go! (down)”

Pickford: Position maintained, feet dragged, dip low to the left

Pity: Low score in the middle

After the game, Pickford said the referee “interrupted” his “normal process” of delaying tactics – including handing the ball to teammates – by threatening to give him a yellow card.

But former England international Izzy Christiansen told BBC Radio 5 Live that Pickford took his “one chance” to “play all his mind games”.

“He chose the moment and I was watching Akanji approaching to place the ball in the spot,” she added. “Jordan Pickford started walking towards the goal, then turned around again and went back the other way, just to get his towel and bottle of drink.

“This gave his team the support to move forward and convert the penalties.

“It was an excellent penalty strategy from England.”

6. Toney ‘practices 13 yards, not 12 yards’

England’s official social media channels have embraced Ivan Toney’s ‘no-look’ penalty reaction, with the Brentford forward trying out ‘no-look’ darts, basketball, Connect4 and even reading a book…

Brentford sports psychologist Michael Caulfield, who also worked with Southgate, says Toney “almost changed the way penalties can be taken”.

“It was incredible skill and courage to really trust your process, under so much pressure, without even daring to look at the ball,” he said.

“It’s a remarkable skill that he has honed over years and years of practice and he has an extraordinary mind for a young man.

“This is a very tough young man, a very smart young man.

“Penalties are not a lottery. I hope we finally got this right.”

With 37 penalties scored out of 40 scored across all club and country matches, Toney last missed a penalty in April 2023 for Brentford against Newcastle.

According to an interview with Toney’s former coach Bob Jeffery, a goalkeeping director who worked with the striker in the US during his betting ban, the striker practices 13-yard penalties, so that when he takes a normal penalty from 12 yards “the goal seems bigger”.

Asked about the penalty, Toney himself told the BBC after the game: “I wouldn’t say pressure, I always have my own routine. .I never look at the ball.

“Some people might think that’s crazy, but I’ve stuck with it and it’s worked.”

7. ‘And breathe’ – England takes 5.2 seconds per pen

Geir Jordet, author of the book Pressure: Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout, told The Athletic that England’s penalty takers took an average of 5.2 seconds from the referee’s whistle to the start of the shootout – compared to Swiss average of 1.3 seconds.

Jordet said that taking a break “to take the time to take two or three deep breaths” means “more control over yourself in that moment.”

Caulfield told BBC Radio 5 live: “It’s saying: ‘I’m going to take the penalty when I’m ready, not when everyone else is ready, not when the referee says so or when the goalkeeper stops dancing on the goal line.’

“One thing we all do is that in all walks of life, when we are under intense pressure, we tend to rush.

“All they’re doing is slowing down so they have full control of their mind, body and emotions, and then they serve the penalty. They’ve got it down to a fine art.”

8. Gunfight ‘buddy’ system

Penalty expert Jordet also noticed a “subtle innovation” of “social psychology” where England assigned each penalty taker a ‘friend’ who would go over and ‘collect’ the taker and welcome him back into the group.

For Saka’s penalty, pictured below, John Stones played that role.

Jordet said: “I assume this friend would also support the designated penalty taker if he failed.

“That was sorely missing in 2021 when Rashford walked 50 meters alone after missing his shot.”

All of these separate processes within a shooting were broken and rebuilt by Chris Markham, FA lead insights analyst, and his team, from January 2017 to the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Since then, Markham said: “It was an 18-month effort in which we reviewed all the literature and collected personalized data on thousands of penalties, including everything you can imagine – angle of advance, length, steps, goalkeeper strategies, shooting techniques, distraction. It was all-encompassing.”

Jordet added of Markham’s research: “I can safely say that no other team in the history of football has prepared as thoroughly and diligently for penalties as England did ahead of the 2018 World Cup.”

As Southgate told BBC Sport on Tuesday in the video below, England have continued to “learn” and “refine” their processes over the years to feel “a lot of control”.

9. ‘Don’t practice too much’ – Hasselbaink’s role

Former Dutch international and current England striker Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink’s role was praised as “huge” by Jude Bellingham following the quarter-final penalty shootout.

And Phil Foden told the BBC Sounds Football Daily podcast: “Jimmy has a lot of experience of the game so he knows his stuff.

“I feel like when I got into the England team, maybe we were practicing too much… So as you can see now, we have Jimmy for that reason, to just take a few [of us]don’t overdo it and practice your point and stick with it.