Shootout voodoo exorcised but concerns remain for England

England fans woke up on Sunday not quite sure whether to celebrate a remarkably confident shootout performance that sent them into the Euro2024 semifinals or lament another display of caution and inertia by their players and manager. 

On the profit side of the ledger was a shootout that should, finally, banish the folk memory of all the penalty pain that preceded it since the first of many defeats by West Germany in the 1990 World Cup semifinals.

Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka, Ivan Toney and Trent Alexander-Arnold all looked as if they would score, and all did so, expertly.

It should not have come as a surprise as Palmer, Toney and Saka are all regular and hugely impressive penalty takers for their clubs, while Bellingham and Alexander-Arnold are among the sweetest strikers of a ball in the game.

With goalkeeper Jordan Pickford going through the full repertoire of "taking control" before saving Manuel Akanji's weak effort, it was an exemplar of how to go about a shootout.

Factoring in a Nations League playoff, also against Switzerland, England have now won three of their last four shootouts under Southgate, having lost six of their seven before that.

England now have a very winnable game against the Netherlands, who have stumbled and scrapped their way into the last four, with the possibility of a third major final appearance and first on foreign soil tantalisingly close.

And yet, behind the singing and dancing, looms the uncomfortable truth that England have got this far largely playing very poorly, certainly in attack.

Their defence has been very good, with every opponent generally kept at long range, but despite boasting an extraordinary array of talent in their ranks, England have been nothing short of boring.

On Saturday, Saka's 80th-minute equaliser was their first shot on target, just as Bellingham's extraordinary equaliser against Slovakia was, in the 95th minute.

The average world ranking of the teams they have beaten -- Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland -- is 35, yet, other than in fleeting patches and moments of individual brilliance, never have now fifth-ranked England looked a dominant team.

They were better on Saturday in terms of probing for openings, but on the few occasions they did get behind the Swiss defence, the quality of cross or final pass was awful.

Southgate had, laughably, said on Friday that his mentality was to "go for it", yet England did anything but. On one occasion late in the game they took a short corner that, three touches later, ended up at the feet of their own goalkeeper.

For all the problems, however, England are still there, while Germany, Italy, Belgium and Portugal et al are not, and that's a scenario the fans would have gobbled up at the start of the tournament, however, it has been achieved.

Highlights

*England have won just four penalty shootouts in their history but two of them have come against Switzerland, in 2019 in the UEFA Nations League and tonight at Euro 2024.

*England have reached the UEFA Euro semi-finals in consecutive tournaments for the first time.

*Switzerland have now been eliminated in all five of their major tournament quarter-final appearances: the 1934, 1938 and 1954 World Cups, and Euro 2020 and 2024.

*For just the second time in their 10th shootout at a major tournament (World Cup/Euros), England scored every single one of their penalties in the shootout (5/5), also doing so against Spain at Euro 96 (4/4).