Why England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford kept looking at his waterbottle before each penalty kick by Switzerland

Pickford's water bottle:

"AKANJI, DIVE LEFT.#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/mDbtR01N91

— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) July 6, 2024

Xherdan Shaqiri was the third spot kick taker for the Swiss and he did what Pickford’s notes had predicted and shot to the left of the keeper, something he narrowly failed to keep out. Zeki Amdouni was the last penalty taker for Switzerland who actually went against what was written on the bottle and slotted the ball right down the middle. In Pickford’s instructions, it was written he would go to the left of the keeper.

Apart from the instructions on the bottle, Pickford also used an array of delaying tactics, keeping the Swiss penalty takers waiting before he went to goal. He even made weird facial expressions towards the takers, standing with his mouth open and eyes wide as a form of a distraction tactic. In the case of Akanji, it worked and England sealed their spot in the next round.

Pickford dives to his left to save Akanji’s penalty as instructed on the water bottle. (REUTERS)

For France coach Didier Deschamps, penalties are a game of chance and it was impossible for a training session to replicate the real-life atmosphere of a shootout in a high-tension match. “The shoot-out is a confrontation between the goalkeeper and the person taking the penalty. It’s not that I don’t think that these things cannot be worked on but I am convinced – and my time as a player informs me on this point – that it is impossible to recreate the psychological conditions of a shoot-out while you are in a training session,” he had said in March. While the French have been practicing their spot kicks for Euros as per some video leaks by RMC Sport which raised the ire of the players, they finally have had a bit of luck from the shootouts, something that have been their undoing in big tournaments where they beat Italy in the 1998 World Cup.

In the recent Champions League quarter final clash between Real Madrid and Manchester City, the reigning EPL champions’ Bernardo Silva had spurned his chance from a penalty shootout when his tame shot down the middle was gobbled up by a grateful Andriy Lunin in the nets. The save, however, has a bit of psychology behind it. With Real already trailing in the match after Luka Modric missed his effort, the pressure was on Lunin to make the save. In most cases, the goalkeeper reacts to the pressure by diving towards his left or right but Lunin did the opposite by just holding his ground. Silva, who had anticipated a dive from the keeper, slotted down the middle but the goalie saved the penalty which would go a long way in Madrid eliminating City from the UCL. A 2009 paper analysing 311 penalty kicks from various men’s professional leagues around the world had found shots at the centre of the goals were less likely to be saved than shots to the side. As the study suggested, on any other day Silva would have converted his penalty but it was the goalie’s presence of mind on that particular night that he could not.