Luke Shaw insists Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka can learn from the agony of their penalty misses in the European Championship final against Italy.
England were ahead in the shootout when Rashford hit the post with their third penalty and Sancho’s tame side-footer was easily saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Jorginho squandered the chance to win the tournament in his duel with England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford but Saka was also denied by Donnarumma, who sealed a 3-2 shootout win.
Sancho is expected to complete his £72.9million transfer to United now the Euros are over and Rashford must decide whether to undergo surgery on his shoulder and ankle.
“He’s devastated, but the most important thing is for us now as a team to be there for him and give him a big hug,” Shaw said of Saka. “I told him to keep his head up, it happens, anything can happen in a penalty shootout, as a lot of people know. It’s an experience he’ll learn from, he knows that.
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“It’s not just him, though, Rashy and Sanch as well, we’re with them all, we win as a team, we lose as a team, there are no individuals that cost [us] that.
“It is devastating, it’s gutting, it’s not what we wanted. I think we were very confident about today, we felt in a good way, we felt we were going in the right direction with performances. It was devastating, we gave everything we could but we’ve come up short.
“It’s a step in the right direction of what we want to achieve, a final, first time in history that’s happened [in the European Championship], but from not just me but the team it’s not enough.
“He (Southgate) just said keep our heads up, it’s just one of them. It’s not much he could say apart from, ‘keep your heads up’. He said what a fantastic group everyone is a part of and things are going in the right direction.
“We’re all really gutted and it hurts a lot. The squad in general, the togetherness is definitely there, it’s clear you could see that even after the game with that huddle, the way we were with the lads who missed, we were all together there. We win as a team, we lose as a team, we all lost tonight.”
