Roy Hodgson has called on his England players to cast off the burden of past failures and show the mental toughness to win at penalties.

The England manager has promised his team will be fully prepared should Sunday’s European  Championship quarter-final against Italy in Kiev go down to spot-kicks.

‘We have practised already but we’ll take it even more seriously now,’ he said. ‘But it’s really your composure, your confidence, your ability to really block everything out and forget the occasion that means you score or you don’t score.

On the spot: England captain Steven Gerrard has been told he will be the chief penalty taker

‘When you are working with the England team the past is always going to weigh heavily because  everything we do today is being compared with something that happened in the past.’

Hodgson has to choose his first five penalty takers but he will turn to skipper Steven  Gerrard to lead by example. Hodgson told him he would take the penalties before the opening group game against France.

Gerrard has scored 27 of 34 attempts in his career, although he did miss one in the quarter-final shootout against Portugal at the 2006 World Cup.

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