Steven Gerrard today insisted he will rise to the pressure of taking a penalty if England's World Cup progress has to be decided by spot-kicks.
England face Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday hoping to avenge the bitter memories of the 1990 World Cup and 1996 European Championships when the Germans knocked them out on penalties - and Gerrard believes England's path to the final this time around could eventually need to be settled by another nerve-shredding bout of spot-kick drama.
"I've got a feeling we might have to go to penalties at some point," said Gerrard, who himself missed for his country four years ago in the quarter-final defeat to Portugal.
"As a player at a World Cup, you've got to be prepared for a shoot-out. It's as simple as that.
"We're in the last 16 and the games, when you get further into a tournament are so tight. Hopefully we get a bit more luck this time and I take a better penalty."
England boss Fabio Capello has been instructing his players to practise penalties in training, but Gerrard while admitting it's a useful exercise he insists it's impossible to replicate the high-pressure experience of a World Cup shoot-out on the training pitch.
"When you practice penalties in training you pick a ball up and shoot within a few seconds," he added.
"But in the World Cup it's a 30-second walk from the halfway line when you've got millions and millions of viewers back home wanting you to score? You can't prepare for that.
"But what you can do is be ready and not shy away from it and have the bottle to step up there for another go, especially when you've missed one before.
"All I can say is I'll be ready. It is massive pressure. I didn't handle it in 2006.
"If I'm put in that situation again I will try and deal with the pressure a lot better.
"The manager is on to the penalty takers to make sure we're doing it properly in training and not messing around.
"He wants us to do in training what we do in a game. He said 'pick a spot and not change your mind.'
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