Jordan Henderson has broken his silence on his disagreement with Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the eve of Euro 2020. When making his return from injury in England’s final warm-up game against Romania, the Liverpool captain controversially took the ball from the Blues forward when the Three Lions were awarded a penalty, only to miss the spot-kick himself.
Jordan Henderson said: “I think it was blown out of proportion to be honest, after the game. Nothing to be said after it internally. I was obviously disappointed to miss but I was more disappointed for Dom as well because he could have had another goal for England. It was blown out of proportion a little bit so no need to dwell on that and speak about it after.”
Having progressed to the Euro 2020 knockout stages, England will face Germany in a round-of-16 in a clash that will reinvoke memories of infamous penalty shoot-out defeats for the Three Lions. England have actually won their two previous shoot-outs under Southgate, against Colombia at the 2018 World Cup and against Switzerland in the 2019 UEFA Nations League, though Henderson missed in the former in Russia. But despite his record, the midfielder insisted he would step forward to take one against Germany if asked as he opened up on England’s penalty preparations throughout Euro 2020.
Jordan Henderson said: “The gaffer will decide his penalty-takers on the night depending on who’s playing and who finishes the game. It’s not really down to me but of course I’d always take one. We practice them here all the time, especially in tournaments, so nothing really changes. I’m sure we’ll be practicing them but that’s always the case in any tournament. The process is like you would in a game. Walk up, do your process that you would do in a game and what you would do if you had to take one. That goes around the whole team but we’ve done that for a long time though, it’s not just this tournament. We try and do it seriously because you want to practice properly with the whole process so it’s important you do it properly and you’re clear in your mind, if you do need to take a penalty what you’re going to do. Overcoming the penalty shootout in the World Cup was a big thing mentally for everyone. I do feel as though we’ve improved over the last few years with that, definitely. That’s going to be a big thing on Tuesday. Mental strength is a huge part of it and we’ve got a lot of players who are mentally strong.”
