Declan Rice may not have been one of England’s five penalty takers against Switzerland, but the influential midfielder still played a key role in another standout success for Gareth Southgate’s side.
The Three Lions advanced to Wednesday’s semi final against Netherlands after a 5-2 shootout victory against the Swiss.
Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold were all calmness personified from the spot and converted their penalties in emphatic style.
Rice, who took a penalty in Arsenal’s Champions League last 16 win over Porto last season, may well have been in line to step up had the contest gone on, but he played an important part in Saturday’s victory, according to Luke Shaw.
‘Dec was our speaker who was keeping everyone calm, calming everyone down, telling everyone to do their breathing techniques and manifest it,’ said Shaw, who made his first appearance of the tournament as a late second half substitute having recovered from injury. ‘It was needed.’
Rice was not the only player who performed an important role behind the scenes, with Kyle Walker providing inside information on his Manchester City teammate Manuel Akanji whose effort was saved by Jordan Pickford.
‘I think Walks helped him a little bit,’ Shaw added. ‘I could see Walks was pointing to his left. Walks was pointing to that side and it gave him extra help.
‘I think he was already going that way, but it gave him some extra help to know where to go.’
Southgate, meanwhile, lauded England’s streetwise spot-kick heroes and heaped special praise on Saka for exorcising his penalty demons against Switzerland.
‘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.
‘We haven’t always got it right. The games we’ve ultimately gone out in people can always look back and highlight things.’
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