Don't be in a hurry to highlight Euro 2021 final, England lost to Italy on penalties at Wembley Stadium. You have to know that the history of England losing a penalty shoot-out is enough to make a book. To cite a few well-known examples, in the quarter-finals of Euro 2004, England lost to Portugal on penalties; In the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup, we lost again, the same opponents, the same pattern. More classic, in the 90s, England lost to Germany on penalties in the World Cup and the European Cup, forcing Lineker to say the famous phrase in football history - football is a game in which 22 players play on both sides and the Germans win in the end.
However, all famous sayings and aphorisms are actually time-sensitive. In the past, it was the German team that killed the opponent at the end, but now, Germany can also be killed by the opponent. Otherwise, how could they have been eliminated by Spain? And what about England? Don't always recall the 2006 World Cup, when Steven Gerrard looked at him before taking a penalty, and think of it as an element of England's football DNA. In fact, nothing can't be changed.
It's like Euro 2024 quarter-finals, where England eliminated Switzerland on penalties. Regardless of how England played 120 minutes, at least in the penalty shoot-out, England's performance was perfect. That's a lot better than their predecessors Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, who did in penalty shoot-outs at major tournaments. And, don't forget, England in recent years has really taken off the hat of penalty shootout difficulty, remember the 2018 World Cup, how England reached the quarterfinals? Wasn't it a penalty shootout that eliminated Colombia?
In a certain period, the results of a team really depend on luck. In any case, England's results in recent years have been much better than they were twenty or thirty years ago. Reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of Euro 2021, what more could you ask of them in today's competitive football? At least, much better than under Eriksen?
At the same time that England tore off the label of the penalty shootout difficulty, South American football has seen a "England" in recent years.
Let's start with the America's Cup, which was held at the same time. Many people take it for granted that the Copa America final should not be Argentina vs. Brazil? Actually, that's not really the case. At least this is not possible, because Brazil has been blocked from the semi-finals by Uruguay. And the way Brazil lost was a penalty shoot-out defeat.
Militão and Douglas Luiz conceded points, while Uruguay were solid except for Jimenez, who conceded a penalty. In this way, Brazil withdrew from this Copa America ahead of schedule.
We all know that Brazil has been in the past few years, no, in the last ten years, it has been memorizing. Now that it is too extravagant to talk about the World Cup championship, Brazil still thinks about whether it can keep the World Cup full attendance award. This is not alarmist, Brazil is now only in sixth place in the world qualifiers, although the expansion brings the number of South American places to 6.5, but Brazil will not qualify for the line, right?
Obviously, in recent years, Brazil has had bad luck. Remember how Brazil got out of the 2022 World Cup? Isn't it exactly the penalty shoot-out defeat to Croatia? Penalty shootouts are a thing that everyone wins and loses, but if you lose several times in a row, it will become a shadow and be pressed in your heart for a long time. And the players will become less and less confident. Brazil clearly didn't want to drag it to penalties because they were afraid that their experience of defeat would make them reluctant to face it.
In fact, although Brazil's performance in penalty shootouts is not very good in history, it is at least at the upper middle level, and there are examples of direct victory in the World Cup through penalty shootouts. But in recent years, Brazil has become more and more like England back then, the players have pressure in their hearts and can't release it, coupled with the constant doubts from the outside world, so that they have always been in a state of dissatisfaction, but at the same time a little timid. To put it simply, the fear of failure, the fear of failure again, this superimposed pressure makes the haze in their hearts heavier and heavier.
Just a few years ago, Brazil won the Copa America, but now? They even moved the bottleneck of the quarterfinals of the World Cup to the Copa America. Although Neymar is missing, Brazil's strength is not so strong that it can't even enter the semi-finals, right? But it's true.
England stripped off the penalty shoot-out label, but Brazil did it. I don't know when the hearts of Brazilian players will see the light again.