Putting your hand up to take a penalty with a place in the final of a major tournament on the line is one of the bolder things a footballer can do. You’re expected to score, but should you be the player who misses the vital spot kick, it can even be a career-defining moment.
While Gareth Southgate has enjoyed a fruitful second act as the most successful England manager of modern times, his playing career was forever blighted by his Euro 96 shootout miss. Southgate’s miss came after ten penalties had been duly dispatched as the Germans lived up to their reputation as mentality masters, amid England nerves.
This contrasting mentality and the confidence of the Germans was underlined by Stefan Kuntz, who took the penalty before Southgate’s fateful spot kick, knowing that had he missed, it would have all been over. That’s because when Kuntz volunteered to take Germany’s fifth penalty, he assumed the shootout wouldn’t have even got that far.
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“I messed up a little bit with the shootout,” Kuntz tells FourFourTwo. “I didn’t think England would take a fifth penalty – I thought it would be over by that point – so I offered to take that one for Germany. England scored their fifth, which left me needing to score. It was the most pressure of my entire career.
Honestly, we felt it too! I’m just happy it went in.” Interstingly, both Kuntz and Southgate were appointed as their respective nations’ Under-21 managers after they hung up their boots, meaning they have had the chance to reminisce about that night at the old Wembley Stadium.
“Yes, Gareth and I have met quite a few times” he adds. “I took his shirt after that match at Wembley and I still have it. When we met again, I told him that and agreed to give him one of my old ones the next time we met, which I did.”
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