2024 Euro: Akanji Penalty Miss Gives England Semi-Final Spot

Manuel Akanji was in tears on Saturday night after his penalty miss ensured that England advanced into the semi-finals of the 2024 Euro football tournament at the expense of his native Switzerland.

GWG.ng reports that the quarter-final match between England had been pushed to extra time after the Three Lions came back to equalise the 75th-minute goal scored by Embolo.

The 80th-minute equaliser by Saka dragged the match into extra time at the end of which no team was able to get the better of the other.

In the penalty shootout, England scored all five goals while Akanji who started the shootout for Switzerland became the only one who missed for his team, denying the Swiss the first opportunity to reach the semi-finals of the Euro.

England now have two more matches to lift the Euro Cup which has been elusive for the team that likes to pride itself as the birthplace of football.

England’s winning penalty taker Trent Alexander-Arnold, speaking to BBC One said: “Incredible, these are the goals that we set for ourselves. Difficult opponent going behind and the team showed a lot of character, belief, heart and spirit out there.

“We knew it was going to be tight. Whatever it takes and no matter what we win – that is all that matters to us.”

On the penalty shootout: “It is what we have practiced. When the gaffer said I was taking one, I enjoy it and I practice it – I knew I had to just execute it.

“All five penalties from us were great,” he said at the end of the pulsating England and Switzerland Euro encounter.

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