Southgate pleased to see England’s penalty preparations come to fruition again

Gareth Southgate was delighted to see Englands penalty shoot-out preparations bear fruit again, with the Three Lions boss taking Nations League bronze as a welcome acknowledgement of the progress being made.An unremarkable third-place play-off against Switzerland came to a stirring conclusion at the Estadio D Afonso Henriques, where Englands glut of missed opportunities threatened to haunt them as the match ended 0-0 after 120 minutes.But a year on from ending a run of five successive shoot-out losses at the World Cup in Russia, the man that helped Southgates men overcome Colombia on penalties was on hand once more.A positive end to another year of progress for the #ThreeLions https://t.co/4fwN0qhFgE England (@England) June 9, 2019Jordan Pickford denied Josip Drmics spot-kick in sudden death to seal a 6-5 win, having become the first goalkeeper to score a penalty for England in a competitive shoot-out.We werent against him taking one last summer, Southgate said.But it was just that others had probably shown just a slightly better level, but he would be amongst our better takers. I think a lot of goalkeepers have very good technique. They practise that sort of technique regularly, but, of course, you know that if it goes against you as a coach, youll get it in the neck so it was pleasing to see him execute it.Weve prepared well for that eventuality and weve talked to the players about it.The first group who arrived three weeks ago have been drilled and we knew in a competition like this that we could be in that situation again.Its obviously lovely for all of the staff when all of that hard work comes to fruition.Scored one. Saved one. Love it, @JPickford1! #threelions pic.twitter.com/WMOLyoXwev England (@England) June 9, 2019Ending with a victory was a welcome shot in the arm three days after the semi-final loss to Holland.But there was no fanfare like the Three Lions witnessed after their third-place play-off loss to Belgium in Russia as UEFA went for a private handover, with a bag medals waiting for them off the pitch.Ive not seen them yet, Southgate said.Its quite ironic, really. Weve had to go through another third/fourth play-off and the one we dont even get them in front of the fans. Its just lobbed to us. I remember some of the guys that were at Liverpool that I played with who said that Joe Fagan used to throw the medals down the back of the bus at the following pre-season and say, get on with it and if youve played enough games, take one.That probably would pretty much sum up where wed be at with this.The only other medals like this weve been involved with was the Tournoi in Glenn Hoddles time.England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford scored from the spot during the penalty shoot-out win over Switzerland (Tim Goode/PA))Its nice that weve got at least some acknowledgement for what weve done over the last year, but I think well all be parking it to one side and looking forward.Switzerland counterpart Vladimir Petkovic admits his side did not really practice for a penalty shoot-out and had few arguments about the result.It wasnt an easy game for us, he said.It was a game where we started off well, had a few chances.Switzerland boss Vladimir Petkovic had few complaints about the result (Handout/UEFA via Getty Images)But England was better in the first half and all-in-all Id say that we showed a solid performance.We faced a team that had greater possession and sometimes you just have to leave the ball to them.I need to congratulate England on that third place they achieved and maybe next time we will have to practice penalties a little more.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){

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