Before leaving the Wembley lawn, after eliminating Germany (2-0), in the round of 16 of this Euro 2021, Jordan Pickford clenched his fists and screamed his joy.
For the fourth time in the competition, the Everton goalkeeper had just finished a game without conceding a goal.
This new "clean sheet" meant a lot to the 27-year-old player with 35 selections, who will again be eagerly awaited this Saturday (9 pm, on TF 1 and beIN Sports 1), against Ukraine, in Rome.
Against Scotland (0-0), in the second match of the group stage, we saw him deflect a saving headline a shot from O'Donnell.
Against Germany, he won a face-to-face with Timo Werner (32nd), deflected above the bar with a superb reflex a strike from Kai Havertz (48th) and above all obliged, by his rapid exit, Thomas Müller to cross his shot too much and miss the equalizer (81st).
The end of the curse of the English goals?
Long laughed at in world football for the blunders of its goalkeepers (David James, Robert Green, Joe Hart…) England therefore seems to have finally found a last bastion of first choice.
This Saturday, if he achieves another perfect match, he will do better than Gordon Banks at the 1966 World Cup in England, the last English goalkeeper to have made a major start to the competition without conceding a goal in the first four games.
Read alsoEuro 2021: English and Ukrainian supporters not welcome in Rome
However, before the start of the Euro, Jordan Pickford aroused more fears than hopes, far from the 2018 World Cup where he had revealed himself.
At 24, he had then replaced a declining Joe Hart, starting the competition with three selections on the clock and the total confidence of Gareth Southgate, that he had had under his command at the Hopes.
For his seventh selection, in the round of 16, he ended 23 years of elimination on penalties against Colombia (1-1, 5-4 on tabs) by deflecting Carlos Bacca's attempt.
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But at club level, Pickford has not always been so convincing.
Goalkeeper with a little academic style - "at the speed at which the modern game is going, it is more difficult to achieve the perfect stop", he had pleaded in The Telegraph before the Euro - his balls with the Toffees, who have him cost a time its place in November, have fueled doubts about its reliability.
Despite everything, he never stopped receiving the support of his coach.
So in November, Southgate said of him: “When people say I'm loyal to him, he's earned it.
There is competition in some positions, but I have to say there is no one in my opinion who is seriously struggling to push him off the bench.
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"He has sometimes been criticized in Everton's jersey, but with England's, this guy seems to be growing," Rio Ferdinand admitted to the BBC after the game against Germany.
He is more confident, he controls all situations.
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After the round of 16, he said: "Trying to be the best Jordan Pickford I can be is all I can do."
England does not ask for more.
