Jordan Pickford emerged as England’s hero in their penalty shootout with Colombia in their last-16 World Cup clash to send them through to the quarter-finals.
After Jordan Henderson saw his penalty saved, Mateus Uribe couldn’t take advantage for Colombia as his effort smacked the crossbar before bouncing back out.
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In turn, it came to Carlos Bacca to score an important spot-kick for his side, but he was denied by Pickford who produced a quality stop.
Eric Dier then stepped up and sealed England’s place in the quarter-finals, but it was the Everton goalkeeper who emerged as the hero in the eyes of many supporters and now it’s claimed that there could have been a method behind his crucial save.
As reported by The Sun, it looked as though he had notes around the neck of his water bottle that he was using during the penalty shootout and it’s claimed that it may have contained pointers on where the Colombia players would be placing their penalties. It only worked for one penalty, but it turned out to be a vital one.
Pickford and the England camp haven’t commented on it to confirm or deny the suggestion, but it looks as though it could have been a clever ploy from the goalkeeper as whatever he did certainly worked as England advance to face Sweden in the quarter-finals later this week.
Was Jordan Pickford’s hidden water bottle the reason for #ENG‘s penalty success? https://t.co/G6XQRraMr4 pic.twitter.com/WzUViQCGd6
— Sun Sport (@SunSport) July 5, 2018