Luke Shaw has named the Manchester City player who helped Jordan Pickford save Manuel Akanji’s spot-kick during England’s win against Switzerland on penalties.
While Pickford is renowned for being an expert at stopping penalties in shootouts, Akanji did not help his case with what was quite a poorly-taken spot-kick.
The England number one was appropriately prepared for the Manchester City centre-back’s penalty, with his water bottle naming all the Swiss players’ preferred side of the goal to place their spot-kicks, as shared by Fabrizio Romano — with ‘wide left’ correctly written in the versatile defender’s case.
However, it also helps that the likes of Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden all train and play with the Swiss international.
Luke Shaw shares how Kyle Walker helped Jordan Pickford ahead of the Manuel Akanji penalty
While Akanji does not take penalties in games, he perhaps must from time to time in training.
Even some of the best penalty-takers in the world have a preferred side of the goal to aim for when taking spot-kicks.
Goalkeepers tend to do their research ahead of knockout games just in case a penalty shootout occurs — whether that be at the European Championship, the World Cup, Copa America or even the Champions League.
While speaking to England’s in-house media, Luke Shaw initially revealed the research that the Three Lions do in preparation for a penalty shootout.
“They work extremely hard and they prepare very well for it. I think the night before the game, they’ll have their own goalkeeper meetings and stuff and go through the penalties and watch them back.”
Shaw went on to highlight how Walker helped Pickford when Akanji was stepping up to take his penalty.
“I also think Walks helped him a little bit as well. Walks was like pointing.”
“If you find it, Walks was pointing to that side as well so…he was already going that way but he had the extra help of Walks to know where to go.”
Kyle Walker has shown once again that he is a serial winner
Playing and sharing a dressing room alongside Akanji, Walker must have developed an affinity towards him.
Especially considering how key the former Borussia Dortmund defender has been to Manchester City’s success — helping the Englishman add even more medals to his trophy cabinet.
But at the end of the way, Walker put his sentiments aside and helped England defeat Switzerland by informing Pickford of where to dive before Akanji took his spot-kick.
The £175,000-a-week man would be desperate to win Euro 2024, for himself, the England team and the entire country and as a result, he had no choice but to be single-minded in his objective on Saturday.
Walker certainly was and even at 34 years of age — despite having had an incredibly decorated career — his thirst for winning silverware seemingly never ceases to be quenched.
The City captain must have felt sorry for Akanji in the aftermath of the contest but it seems like winning rules how he views football — a mindset his teammates would appreciate at club and international level.
