By Tom Gott
Bukayo Saka admitted he was proud to see himself overcome the pressure of his miss in the Euro 2020 final to play a starring role in England's victory over Switzerland on Saturday.
Alongside Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, Saka was targeted by vile racist abuse by England fans after missing a penalty in the final of Euro 2020, with the trio all admitting they continue to struggle to process the incident.
Three years later and Saka found himself under pressure once again. Having scored a glorious goal to tie things up and send the game to penalties, the Arsenal winger stepped up to the spot and made no mistake this time.
"I have faith in God," Saka told BBC after the game. "To come back from something like that is really difficult, but today I took the chance.
"I'm going to put it up there, special. How we fought back and to go to penalties... last time we took a penalty shoot-out at the Euros, we know what happened. I believed.
"I felt like we dominated the whole game and the chance would come and I took it. I am proud of myself for that."
After four underwhelming showings at this tournament, England turned to a back three, with Saka sent over to right wing-back to produce his finest performance of the summer by far.
"I think it shows how much we want to win this tournament," Saka said of England's response. "Hopefully, next game we can win in 90 minutes but if this is what it takes – we will do anything!"
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This article was originally published on 90min.com as Bukayo Saka 'proud' to banish Euro 2020 demons with Switzerland heroics.
