Wayne Rooney was involved in several penalty shootouts during his England career (Picture: The Overlap)
Wayne Rooney has made the surprising claim that Chelsea legend John Terry was among the best penalty takers he has ever seen.
The former Blues’ skipper infamously missed from 12 yards in the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United.
Terry had the opportunity to win the game for his side, but slipped in treacherous, rain-sodden conditions and skewed his effort wide of the target.
The image of the crestfallen Chelsea skipper collapsing to his knees and sobbing in the Moscow rain represents an unforgettable image, especially for Rooney who revealed he couldn’t believe his former England teammate had missed.
‘How can Jamie Carragher be taking a penalty in a shootout? That is shocking!’ said Rooney, talking to SkyBet, mocking the Sky Sports pundit failing from the penalty spot in a 2006 World Cup quarter final shootout, before detailing his Terry revelation.
‘The only thing I would say is John Terry was one of the best penalty takers I’ve ever seen, honestly, in training.
‘I went off the pitch in the Champions League final, I’m looking at him because I’ve seen him in training with England. I’m watching him walking up and I’m thinking, ‘It’s over’ – thankfully he slipped!’
John Terry slipped taking a penalty in the 2008 Champions League final (Picture: Getty)
Chelsea lost the 2008 Champions League final after John Terry missed his penalty (Picture: Getty)
Rooney, himself, was a regular penalty taker for both club and country and revealed the secrets behind his fail-safe technique.
He added: ‘I’ve practiced penalties where I’d tell the goalkeeper what way I’m going and do it properly, but it does frustrate you when players come up and try and mess around.
‘I say to my players now, ‘If you’re practicing, do it properly how you’d do it in a game’ and you can do as much practice, but you can’t put in places the stadium, the fans, the pressure of it – obviously it’s completely different when you’re stepping up to what it is on a training pitch.’
Wayne Rooney took on penalty taking duty for England and Manchester United (Picture: Getty)
England’s record in penalty shootouts at major tournaments is notoriously dreadful with the scars from their most recent heartbreak – defeat in the Euro 2020 final on home soil – still to fully heal.
‘When you go out five out of eight tournaments on penalties, it becomes more than just luck,’ confessed Rooney’s long-time colleague Gary Neville.
‘I recognise now looking back, we used to go out and think, ‘Penalties is a 50-50’, it’s not – it really isn’t. You’ve got to have really good technical players on the pitch.’
In England’s defence, it probably did not help that the press were revealing details of Fabio Capello’s penalty secrets back in the 2010 World Cup, which highlighted the levels of intrusion that come with playing for the national team.
‘In Brazil, when we were practicing penalties the day before the game, the press had photographers taking pictures and filming us practicing our penalties and they were printing it in the newspaper the next day – what way every player was going,’ revealed Rooney.
‘We were telling people, ‘What are you doing?’ They [the press] were like, ‘Well if I don’t print it, then someone else will’.’
‘I, at the time, snapped at that [the press taking photos of penalty practice] because there was a little room [and] it was basically a closed session where we were practicing penalties and two journalists basically snuck into a little room, it was like a peep hole type thing,’ added Neville.
‘I couldn’t believe that had happened. That’s probably a rare incident, but with penalties we tried everything.’
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