U21s ready for drama of shoot-outs

England Under-21 boss Aidy Boothroyd has tapped into Gareth Southgate’s Euro 96 penalty woe to ensure his men avoid a similar fate.

The Under-21s – with Sunderland keeper Jordan Pickford a key member of the squad – begin the countdown to Euro 2017 and fly out this week ahead of Friday’s tournament opener against holders Sweden.

They beat Iceland Under-21s 3-0 in a closed-doors friendly on Saturday before winning a penalty shoot-out 7-6 in an attempt to get some in-game practice.

Senior boss Southgate missed the crucial penalty at Wembley at Euro 96 as the Three Lions lost a semi-final shoot out to Germany and Boothroyd has taken his advice as England bid to qualify from the group stages for the first time since 2009.

He said: “The biggest thing, being in an environment where I’m sharing an office with Gareth and Steve (Holland) is listening to Gareth’s experiences as a player, the shoot-out in 96, the way the team approached it and generally trying to soak up as much of Gareth’s experience as a player.

“The key thing is we leave no stone unturned and don’t get carried away with it. We will be practising penalties, we can only practise so much and I’m not the first one to go on about practising penalties.

“We have one or two ideas to make sure when it comes to it we will be ready, but we have to a position where we get to practise them because last time we didn’t get to that stage.

“There needs to be that little luck, you need depth.”

Norwich’s Jacob Murphy scored twice and Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham also netted in England’s win over Iceland at St George’s Park, when Angus Gunn was in goal, rather than Pickford.

They also face Slovakia and hosts Poland in Kielce and Boothroyd insisted it is vital his men keep their cool

He said: “Martin Thomas (goalkeeping coach) told me about Joe Hart in the penalty shoot-out (in 2009) where he was jumping around, irritated the ref, got a yellow card and missed the final. Scott Loach went in goal and had a bit of a bad game.

“Things about the tournament itself, the pressure of it, the way one bad decision can cost you a player and make sure that emotions don’t get the better out of us.”