Gary Lineker has confessed two of England‘s penalty takers nearly brought him to tears in their Euro 2024 quarter-final victory against Switzerland.
The Three Lions progressed to the final four in Germany after nailing all five spot kicks. Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney, and Trent Alexander-Arnold were on target, with Jordan Pickford making a crucial save against Manuel Akanji for a 5-3 triumph.
It was Saka and Alexander-Arnold’s third and fifth penalties that especially touched Lineker. “I was so pleased. I did actually, watching it, get a little bit emotional,” he shared on The Rest Is Football podcast. His Match of the Day colleague Micah Richards chimed in: “You was tearing up a little.”
READ MORE: Secret of England’s penalty success revealed by top sports psychologist
READ MORE: Gary Lineker admits he’s to blame as BBC cut sound during England win over Switzerland
Lineker then explained why Saka’s successful penalty resonated with him, drawing parallels to the redemption arc of his former England team-mate Stuart Pearce, reports the Express. He added: “Yeah, I’m a softy – I never used to be, I was really cold as a player.
“It reminded me so much of the Stuart Pearce moment. Stuart Pearce missed in 1990 when I played. He’s such a diamond of a bloke and a wonderful footballer. And then we played against Spain, penalty shootout in Euro 1996 and he stepped forward again.
“I was in the crowd and I was thinking ‘please, please score, don’t miss’. And everybody in the crowd was the same. There was a silence that was palpable. And when he knocked that in – I cried on that occasion, I was sitting in the crowd, crying tears of joy.
(Image: The FA via Getty Images)
“I don’t actually cry when I’m sad, I cry when I’m happy. And it reminded me of that. He (Saka) took the penalty that basically lost us the Euros. To come back from that, a young lad.
“Having scored also an absolutely brilliant goal to drag us level almost immediately after the substitutions, what a goal by the way. And then the penalty goes right. He’s amazing.”
The BBC presenter admitted he was also holding back the tears for Alexander-Arnold’s winning penalty. “And the other time that I actually welled up a little bit was with Trent, because I feel for Trent in this tournament,” Lineker explained.
“I think he was a bit hung out to dry a little bit because he’s been suddenly put into that central midfield position. But he was put in when the team was a bit disjointed. It wasn’t cohesive, they were all over the place, and everyone’s blaming Trent.
“And then he (Gareth Southgate) takes him off, and I just thought ‘that’s not fair’. And then I was so pleased for him that A, he came on, and then to score the winning penalty. He’s such an unbelievably brilliant footballer.”
Questions about Gareth Southgate’s management strategies aren’t going away, but the team are gearing up for their third semi-final in the last four major tournaments. However, Wednesday will see them facing a significantly tougher adversary than they have so far encountered in Germany, with the Netherlands standing between them and the final in Berlin.