I hadn't really thought about the psychological effects of Pirlo's penalty on the dynamic of the shoot-out until I read this interesting take on it from former England player Graeme Le Saux:
But the shootout started well for us against Italy, at least until Andrea Pirlo stepped up. He was the difference between the teams all night, and showed how much England need a technician who can control the tempo and the pattern of a game.
But if England had somehow survived despite his superiority in open play, what he did in the shootout destroyed us. There was so much self-belief in his penalty, so much confidence, and that will have filtered through to his team-mates. At the same time some of England's players, particularly Joe Hart – who had to watch the ball floating over his shoulder – would have found it demoralising. You've got to admire Pirlo's bravado but England's players probably felt that he had been humiliating and disrespectful. They must have been tempted to go straight over and give him a slap. Following that was very difficult and we couldn't – we didn't score another penalty.
Full piece here.
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