FEARLESS & HUNGRY

Dier reveals he had no idea he was going to take THAT penalty

ENGLAND’S shoot-out hero Eric Dier revealed he had no idea that he was going to be one of the takers.

Dier scored from the spot to give England their firstever World Cup shoot-out win and set up a quarter-final tie against Sweden on Saturday.

But the Tottenham star, who came on as an 81st-minute sub, said he was unaware he was down to take a spot-kick in the event of a penalty shoot-out.

Asked if he knew he was down to take one before the game, Dier said: “No, I had no idea.

“We were hoping it didn’t go to penalties!

“I didn’t know the order until the manager came up. He didn’t tell us the order before the game.

“Obviously, with substitutions, the order can change, so after extra-time he just told me I was No.5.

“It’s a strange one. Obviously, you don’t do it very often, so it’s a bit weird, but it was OK.

“At the time, I don’t really know what I was thinking about [walking up to take the penalty], to be honest.

“While you’re waiting to take it, it’s nerve-racking, but, once I walked up, when I was going to take it, I was quite calm. I knew where I was going to put it.”

Dier described the mood in the jubilant England dressing room after the win as “surreal”.

But he added that they knew they must switch their focus to the next challenge against Sweden.

“The feeling of winning on penalties is kind of surreal,” said Dier. “It takes you over. It’s fantastic.

“It might be difficult, but that’s really the most important thing – to take one game at a time, to focus now on the Sweden game, like we did for Colombia.

“That’s the key in football. I’ve said it loads of times, but, in football, you never know what’s going to happen and I think this was the perfect example of that.

“You have to be prepared for everything and you’ve got to enjoy every moment and be in that moment.

“If you think too far ahead, you lose your focus on the present – and the present is the most important thing.”