Watch out, Italy! England progressed thanks to Wayne Rooney's solitary goal against Ukraine on Tuesday

Laughing at the suggestion England were even more useless at them than Italy, he said: 'To be honest, I haven't paid attention to this record.

'During a penalty shootout, you have to be calm. Lots will depend on your goalkeeper as well. We're not preparing for the game in order to go to a penalty shootout.'

Italy did at least manage to win the 2006 World Cup on penalties, although they crashed out of Euro 2008 two years later after a shootout with eventual champions Spain.

De Rossi added: 'We will try to kick our penalties like in the World Cup in 2006 and not like four years ago against Spain.'

Italy won the World Cup six years ago amid a match-fixing scandal in the country's domestic game, much as they had done in 1982.

Italian football is currently engulfed in another such scandal and De Rossi said: 'This does not give us a greater motivation to play. This is a group composed of great players, professionals, who can really creat team spirit.

'Maybe this is a feature of Italian people, who can overcome great difficulties very well.'

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