- England beat Switzerland on penalties to reach the semi-finals of Euro 2024
- Trent Alexander-Arnold scored England’s decisive spot-kick in the shoot-out
- LISTEN to It’s All Kicking Off! EUROS DAILY: Harry Kane has to come out of the England XI – it’s holding them back and it’s time for Ivan Toney or Ollie Watkins
Trent Alexander-Arnold has said that ‘pressure makes diamonds’ after scoring the decisive spot-kick in Saturday’s penalty shoot=out against Switzerland.
Alexander-Arnold stepped up to take England’s fifth penalty with the chance to put his side through to the last four of Euro 2024 and he took it by emphatically smashing his spot-kick into the corner of the net.
And, following his calmness, the Liverpool man had a message for fans hours after the game finished.
He tweeted that ‘pressure makes diamonds’ with a series of photo of himself netting the spot-kick and a couple of the celebrations.
Jordan Pickford saved Manuel Akanji’s effort in the 5-3 triumph to set up a semi-final against the Netherlands in Dortmund on Wednesday.
Trent Alexander-Arnold said ‘pressure makes diamonds’ t after England’s win over Switzerland
Speaking after the game, manager Gareth Southgate credited his side for finding ways to win.
‘There’s what we ideally want to be and then there’s how we’ve needed to find ways to win with all the obstacles we’ve had,’ Southgate said.
‘Going back to losing players a couple of months ago, losing players just before the tournament, different balance of the team, different challenges all the way through, really.
‘But as I said to the players, with England it was often start 25 minutes really well, ahead in games and then and then out in the early knockout rounds.
‘We weren’t savvy, we weren’t tournament wise. This group are different. They keep possession for longer periods.
Alexander-Arnold scored the winning spot-kick to send his team to the semi-finals
‘We haven’t always got it right. The games we’ve ultimately gone out in people can always look back and highlight things.
‘But, in general, we’ve shown the resilience that the teams that win tournaments have had for years and years.
‘Italy, France, Spain, you know, it’s not all pure football. It’s other attributes that they’ve had and we’re showing a little bit more of that streetwise nature.
‘We want to always be competitive in tournaments. England should be competitive for the coming years. This is a young team – a lot of them are going to be around for a long time.
‘But, of course, now we want to deliver one. We’ve never been to a final outside of England, we’ve never won a Euros, so there’s two bits of history we’d love to create.’