Jordan Pickford Brings Swiss Penalty Kicker Contekan In The Bottle Of Drink

JAKARTA - England managed to match Switzerland in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, Saturday, July 6, 2024, through a penalty shootout drama with a score of 5-3 after the match ended in a 1-1 draw until the extra round.

After the match, Jordan Pickford's drinking bottle, the England goalkeeper, became a topic of conversation on social media.

The drinking bottle is known to have a record of Swiss penalty kickers and their shot.

"Ganji: dive to the left," reads one of the writings in the cone.

Pickford seems to be moving according to the instructions in the note. As a result, he managed to guess the direction of Akanji's ball and made the Manchester City player the only kicker to fail to carry out his duties.

Apparently, the record stuck in Pickford's drinking bottle was leaked regarding the analysis of the favorite direction of the Swiss penalty kicker.

Apart from that, Gareth Southgate commented more on the penalty victory thanks to training and experience.

"I think we had a good process. We were involved in four penalties and won three times."

"We are perfecting the process a little bit. We have more regular penalty takers in the squad than ever before."

"We have a calm process, but the players have to show calm as they do," Southgate said as reported by Fox Sports.

Southgate looked not too busy looking for penalty volunteers after the extension ended.

He already knew that even the shooters in his squad were so often practicing penalties.

The 53-year-old coach also looked calm when Cole Palmer appeared as the first kicker. Many doubt it because he lacks experience, but in fact he finished well and calmly.

Gareth Southgate seemed to have no problem bringing in any substitute even though he ended up on penalties. Again, he fully believes in his squad thanks to penalty practice.

Likewise with Pickford. He looked calmer than usual because he was given the trust.

The problem with this penalty shootout, Southgate did not bother. Before the match against Switzerland, he had given directions to his students to give their best up to a penalty shootout and according to what was in training.

"I say after the Euros, it's my responsibility, but on a night like this game, it was the players who gave it a performance."

"I want to put pressure on them. If it doesn't work then it depends on me. However, in order to succeed, they have to give what they do."

"It's not easy, but we're in the third semifinals in four tournaments. For staff and players, this is a pretty good achievement, but we don't want it to end," Southgate said again.

England's confidence in winning the penalty shootout was also raised from the Man of the Match of the match, Bukayo Saka.

"For myself, I believe we have had some of the best penalty takers in the Premier League and the world."

"We've talked about it before when it comes to penalty shootouts. We're quite confident. We showed it, 5 out of 5, we advanced to the next round."

"For me, this is something great. You could fail once, but you have a choice whether you will return to your original position or not."

"I believe in myself. When I saw myself score goals, I was very happy," Saka said.

Meanwhile, regarding Pickford's drinking bottle, speculation is still growing on social media. Until now, there has been no official response from the England team.