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Southgate: England's shoot-out failure against Italy 'totally rests with me'
The manager blamed himself after his late substitutes missed from the spot to hand the Azzurri the European Championship at Wembley
Gareth Southgate has said England's shoot-out failure in the Euro 2020 final against Italy on Sunday "totally rests with me" as he made the selections for who would take the kicks.
Substitutes Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed consecutively as the Three Lions fell just short of their first major trophy since 1966.
Saka, 19, was consoled by his manager after missing the decisive spot kick.
What has been said?
"In terms of the penalties, that’s my call," Southgate told BBC. "It totally rests with me.
"I decided on the penalty takers based on what they’ve done in training, and nobody is on their own. We won together as a team, and it’s on all of us for not being able to win the game tonight.
“We’re hugely disappointed. The players have been an absolute credit, they’ve given everything they possibly could.
"They’ve run themselves into the ground. At times they played really well, at times we didn’t keep the ball quite well enough, especially at the start of the second half, but we can’t have any recriminations, they’ve been a joy to work with. They’ve gone further than we’ve gone for so long, but tonight it’s incredibly painful in that dressing room."
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In the immediate aftermath of the defeat, Southgate has been criticised for relying on inexperienced players who had not gotten into the flow of the match before the shootout.
However, Rashford and Sancho have scored penalties for their clubs and played in high-stakes Champions League contests, which likely bolstered their case for being named as England kick-takers.
