A new spirit floods the England camp, following the cathartic victory over Slovenia, and a welcome commitment to practising penalties in training gives England hope going into Sunday’s round of 16 game in Bloemfontein.
If England line up with Jamie Carragher replacing Matthew Upson, then Fabio Capello will have plenty of players experienced at penalty-taking, albeit not always successfully.
Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Carragher all missed in Gelsenkirchen in 2006 but will present themselves willingly for duty, as will Glen Johnson, John Terry, Ashley Cole, James Milner, Gareth Barry, Wayne Rooney and Defoe.
Capello has 23 names in order and those on the pitch at the end of extra time will not be allowed shirk their responsibility. The probable German five would be Bastian Schweinsteiger (if fit), Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker, Philipp Lahm and Miroslav Klose.
Read Henry Winter’s full article for the Daily Telegraph here.