European Championship stadium DJ annoys nervous stars from England and Switzerland with brutal song selection before penalty shootout

BUKAYO SAKA showed tremendous courage to rescue England from a tight spot and take them past Switzerland on penalties, writes Tom Barclay.

The “Three Lions” were close to elimination when Breel Embolo gave the Swiss the lead in the 75th minute.

But Arsenal star Saka helped England equalise five minutes later with a stunning shot that hit the post.

It went to penalties – just like five years ago between these two teams in the Nations League.

And just like back then, Jordan Pickford parried the Swiss’s first shot against Manuel Akanji.

From then on, England played perfectly: Cole Palmer, Jude Bellignam, Saka, Ivan Toney and finally Trent Alexander-Arnold sent the Three Lions into the semi-finals.

This is how the players rated…

Jordan Pickford: 7

His heart was pounding when Xherdan Shaqiri’s corner hit the post and crossbar deep in extra time. But then he made a clever save and the game went to penalties.

Saved Manuel Akanji’s first penalty by diving deep to the left.

Kyle Walker: 6

Spent most of the game on the right side of a back three, preventing him from getting forward. Embolo got in front of him for Switzerland’s first goal. Won the coin toss so the penalties were taken in front of the English fans.

John Stones: 6

He showed crisper passing in the first half, much better than his sloppy performance as a Slovakian, but he deflected a cross from Dan Ndoye and the ball went to Embolo.

Ezri Konsa: 6

He was decent for the first half of his first major tournament start, but after the break he retreated into his shell like the rest of the team.

Kieran Trippier: 6

He was expected to play as a right wing-back, but he ended up on the left again.

Defensively solid, but as throughout the tournament, his unnatural side offered little going forward.

Declan Rice: 7

He subsequently anticipated and won a series of 50-50 games in the centre of the English midfield.

With his feint, he gave Saka the space he needed for the corner before his dream shot from 23 meters was prevented by a save from Yann Sommer in extra time.

Kobbie Mainoo: 6

Some good attacks from midfield. It looked like he would score the first goal just before half-time after

However, Bukayo Saka’s beautiful back pass was prevented by Granit Xhaka’s excellent block.

Bukayo Saka: 8 and STAR MAN

Although he didn’t play as a left wing-back as expected, he was England’s most dangerous attacking player throughout – especially when he came to the rescue with his equaliser in the 80th minute, which flew off the post and into the net.

Showed tremendous courage in the penalty shootout, converting his penalty beautifully, three years after missing in the last European Championship final.

Jude Bellingham: 6

In the first half, he showed his qualities in some graceful dribbling, but was fairly unremarkable.

Looked exhausted but showed a lot of courage with his low penalty.

Phil Foden: 6

Before the game he admitted that he would be better suited to the central role and for the first 20 minutes it seemed that way, but after that his performance dropped off.

Harry Kane: 4

This system just doesn’t suit him. He needs runners, but it doesn’t look like he’s getting them.

He simply didn’t get into the game and was substituted in extra time, seconds after colliding with his coach on the sidelines.

Submarines

Cole Palmer (for Konsa, 78): 7

One of three players brought on in response to Switzerland’s opening goal – why did it take so long, Gareth? – confidently converted England’s first penalty.

Luke Shaw (for Trippier, 78): 6

His first minutes of football since February, when he lined up on the left side of the back three as Southgate put everything on the line.

Eberechi Eze (for Mainoo, 78): 6

In the final moments he created a lot of space for himself, but missed.

Ivan Toney (For Kane, 109): 7

It was no surprise to see him coming as penalties were on the cards – more surprising was that it was penalty master Kane. He was knocked over in the box just before the end of extra time but there was nothing. A certain penalty.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (for Foden, 115): 7

Came on shortly before the end of extra time and converted the penalty to win.

Gareth Southgate: 4

The adapted system with the three-man defense worked to a certain extent, but the approach still seemed to be to stay compact and trust in a magic moment.

Saka equalised, but given the talent at his disposal, his success seemed very limited.

It took him ages to make a substitution just because Switzerland took the lead. But he made the right substitutions in the penalty shootout.