Euro 2024: England star Saka exorcises penalty demons as semi-finals beckon

Bukayo Saka said self-belief powered his man-of-the-match performance against Switzerland, as a successful penalty in the shoot-out banished his demons of three years ago.

Not only did Saka equalise for England with a fine individual strike to cancel out Breel Embolo’s opener – to make it 1-1 and take the match to extra-time – he took the third of the five penalties all scored by Gareth Southgate’s side to secure a 5-3 win in the shoot-out.

Saka was one of three players who missed his penalty in the Euro 2020 final loss to Italy at Wembley and, as well as Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, who were the other takers who failed from 12 yards, was racially abused online in the aftermath.

Since then, the Arsenal forward has morphed into a key player for club and country, scoring 10 of the 11 penalties he has taken for the Gunners following the harrowing experience.

“I think for me it’s something I embrace,” he said about exorcising his demons. “You can fail once but you have a choice whether you put yourself in that position again or not. I’m a guy who is going to put myself in that position. I believed in myself.

“When I saw the ball hit the net, I was a very happy man. I’m not going to be focusing on the past. That’s done. I can only focus on now and taking a penalty.”