Gareth Southgate and his England squad have been given important points by renowned psychologist Darren Stanton. They play France on Saturday in the World Cup quarter-finals but a penalty shootout looms.
Already in the knockout stages of the World Cup, we have seen the likes of Japan, Spain and Brazil exit on penalties. Croatia have been responsible for two of those victories from 12 yards.
Tite's Selecao, who were among the pre-tournament favourites, were the latest victims as Dominik Livakovic proved to be the hero again. His fellow goalkeeping compatriot, Bono, of Morocco, was on hand to stun to the 2010 World Cup winners as they won 3-0 on penalties after a goalless 120 minutes.
READ MORE: Why Neymar did not take a penalty for Brazil as they crashed out of 2022 World Cup vs Croatia
The Three Lions seemingly ended their penalty curse at the World Cup in 2018 when they overcame Colombia. Their heroics couldn't be matched as they were beaten by Italy on spot-kicks three years later in the European Championships final.
Among those who missed a penalty against Roberto Mancini's side was Marcus Rashford. He endured a torrid campaign last season but has enjoyed a resurgence under Erik ten Hag and has carried that form into the grandest tournament in international football.
Stanton believes he is ready to put the incident at Wembley behind him should the reigning world champions and England have to be settled by penalties.
He told Genting Casino: "Despite his penalty miss against Italy last year, Marcus Rashford seems to have a focus and determination that a lot of others players don’t have, so I’m predicting he will do big things this weekend."
Jordan Pickford made a crucial save to help England on course to their shootout win four years ago. The renowned psychologist has offered a piece of advice for what he should look out for in order to guess the right way.
"Eye contact and facial expressions are great indicators as to what’s going on in a person's mind. But any gestures, like rubbing the back of their neck, before taking a penalty is a sign of a lack of confidence and a gesture for anxiety," he added.
"There is a massive area of research and discussion within psychology about what makes certain players excellent at their penalty-taking skills," the former Derbyshire police officer with a degree in psychology said discussing how the Three Lions can get that edge.
"The pictures players make in their head about the probability that they will score the goal is also a significant factor of the overall process.
"The reason some are so good at penalties is that in their mind, they have already scored the penalty before they even touch the ball. Some of the most successful players in football history used this same method to improve their penalty-taking."
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