It was the first time ever in a World Cup tournament that England won a penalty shootout thanks to their stars who stepped up and converted the spot kick to ensure The Three Lions booked their ticket for their clash with Sweden in the quarter-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
One notable surprise was the omission of Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy as one of England’s first five penalty takers.
The 31-year-old has been a regular penalty taker and has since converted six out of seven attempts for Leicester last season.
Vardy came on as a substitute in the 88th minute just minutes before Yerry Mina equalized for Colombia to force the match to proceed to extra-time but was not among the penalty takers as Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Kieran Trippier, Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier were favoured by Gareth Southgate. Henderson saw his shot saved as the other four scored.
Asked about his choice of penalty takers, Southgate was quoted by Metro saying, ‘We were just making sure we had our order right.
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‘We had to make a couple of changes because of injuries during the extra-time period.
‘But we knew it was a process we were in charge of and the guys executed it brilliantly.’
It appears that Vardy was among the players who picked an injury during extra-time as he was seen holding his groin during the celebrations at the end of the shootout.
