Euro Cup: England penalty decisions in final 'totally rests' with me, says Gareth Southgate
Jul 12, 2021
London [UK], July 12 : Gareth Southgate, the head coach of England, has said the Three Lions' failure in the penalty shootouts in the Euro Cup final "totally rests" with him as he was the one who decided who was going to take he kicks on the basis of training.
In the summit clash, Italy defeated hosts England 3-2 on penalties. This was the first-ever time England had made it to the finals of the European Championships.
The normal 90-minute action had finished at 1-1 and even extra time was not able to break the deadlock, sending the match into a penalty shootout.
Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka all missed the chance to net goal in the penalty shootout as England faced defeat at the hands of Italy on Sunday (local time).
"In terms of the penalties, that's my call. It totally rests with me," Southgate told BBC as reported by goal.com.
"I decided on the penalty takers based on what they've done in training, and nobody is on their own. We won together as a team, and it's on all of us for not being able to win the game tonight," he added.
The England manager said the side was "hugely disappointed" with the loss and admitted to not playing "well enough" at the start of the second half.
"We're hugely disappointed. The players have been an absolute credit, they've given everything they possibly could. They've run themselves into the ground," said Southgate.
"At times they played really well, at times we didn't keep the ball quite well enough, especially at the start of the second half, but we can't have any recriminations, they've been a joy to work with. They've gone further than we've gone for so long, but tonight it's incredibly painful in that dressing room," he added.
After England got off to a flying start, Leonardo Bonucci got the equaliser for Italy as he netted the ball into the goalpost in the 67th minute, bringing the scoreline level at 1-1.
No more goals were scored in the match, and hence the game had to progress to extra time. The extra time was also not able to separate the two teams, and hence the game progressed to the much-dreaded penalty shootout.
In the penalty shootout, Italy edged out England 3-2 and as a result, Italy won their second Euro title.
