England midfielder Eric Dier has declared that the Three Lions defeated Colombia 4-3 on penalties in the last 16 of the World Cup because they were well prepared for the shootout.
The Tottenham Hotspur star, who netted the winning spot-kick, said that his side had a plan in place for extra time and penalties, and they stuck to it.
“To get pegged back right at the end in stoppage time, it’s difficult to come back from that but we knew what we had to do and we stuck to our plan,” Dier told ITV.
“We never panicked and when it came to penalty kicks, we were ready for those too.”
The match was tied at 1-1 after 90 minutes, with Harry Kane’s opener from the penalty spot having been cancelled out by a Yerry Mina header deep into stoppage time.