England could host a mock penalty shoot-out at Wembley Stadium ahead of next summer’s World Cup finals.
After being knocked out on penalties in the 1990, 1998 and 2006 World Cups and the 1996, 2004 and 2012 European Championships, England boss Gareth Southgate is considering ways of preparing his players for a dreaded shoot-out should it arise in Russia.
Southgate knows first-hand what it’s like to miss a penalty in a major tournament shoot-out – against Germany in 1996. He told The Sun that shoot-out practice could happen in March at Wembley.
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According to the London Evening Standard previous England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson and Roy Hodgson also thought about holding penalty shoot-outs before major tournaments.
“It’s something that we are considering and how we prepare best for penalty shoot-outs,” said Southgate.
“Whether that’s something on the training ground, whether that’s in sessions we do away from the training ground or something we do in some sort of match scenario, we’ve not finalised things like that yet. But clearly that is an option.”
Meanwhile, Southgate has revealed that goalkeeper Joe Hart will start tomorrow night’s friendly match against Brazil.
Hart’s place is under threat after Jordan Pickford’s impressive debut against Germany, but The Guardian reports that the West Ham stopper will don the gloves against Neymar and Co at Wembley (8pm start).
“Jordan had an excellent game,” said Southgate. “It was a good experience for him, we can wrap him up now, assess him in the next period with his club and it’s good that he goes away with a really positive experience.
“Now’s an opportunity for Joe to have experience against top opposition as well and we’re all aware there’s really good competition in that area of the pitch.
“We have six months where all our goalkeeping department can show what they can do. What Jordan has shown is that he’s been able to make his debut at Wembley, play with composure and show his qualities. He’s still a young goalkeeper, still learning, and there are things for him to improve but it was a really positive debut.”
