It has emerged that some England players were surprised that Bukayo Saka was called on amongst the first five penalty takers for the Three Lions in their shootout loss to Italy, according to the Telegraph.
Matt Law reports for the Telegraph that England players were ‘impressed’ by the bravery on display from Saka, but that some Three Lions players were surprised by the 19-year-old being called upon.
Three consecutive misses from Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Saka ended England’s hopes of winning a long-awaited major international tournament.
Gianluigi Donnarumma made perfect reads on Saka and Sancho as he dove down to parry away their efforts.
The Telegraph have actually found that Saka’s results from the spot over the last week in training had been ‘mixed’, but the Arsenal man was still clearly seen as the best option at No.5.
It seems like it was surprise all around – barring from Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland – in reaction to Saka being selected for the all-important penalty.
Saka had never even taken a spot-kick in his senior career as he stepped up last night, which makes the decision from Southgate even more questionable.
It was the choice of the coach don’t blam Saka even Messi and Ronaldo missed penalty england played well but it were unlucky