England turns to science to ensure penalty shoot-out victory over Germany

To overcome their past history of failures during penalty shoot-outs in crunch games, England has roped in statisticians to ensure a victory over Germany in their crunch game on Sunday.

England players are undergoing penalty kicks training and will be told exactly where to get their spot kicks during the crucial moment.

England U-21 coach Stuart Pearce pioneered a more scientific method of dealing with pressure penalties last summer during the U-21s run to the Euro final, and it worked in the semi final against Sweden, The Mirror reports.

He wants to take the uncertainty and doubt out of players minds, to the extent that they know the most reliable place to hammer their effort, whether that is top right, bottom left or wherever.

Pearce has his own painful memories of missing a penalty in the 1990 World Cup, when he and Chris Waddle failed to convert, letting Germany into the final, the paper reports.

He explained his take last summer, and England players have replicated it this year, The Mirror reports.

Discussing his U21 shoot out plan, Pearce said: "We have analysed the direction in which players take penalties, which is the most successful way for each of our players, the success rate of those players, and obviously the goalkeeper's technique in saving penalties.

"We spent two years working on those lessons. From years gone by the one thing that comes out is that when a manager walked out to the centre circle they had no idea who his best penalty takers were. He would ask who fancies it. That is not exactly a precise science, is it?"