FORMER England keeper David Seaman has revealed he would love Gareth Southgate’s men to beat Germany on penalties in the last 16 to avenge their Euro ’96 heartbreak.
Both Seaman and Southgate were involved in the penalty shoot-out against the Germans at Wembley Stadium 26 years ago but were left devastated along with the rest of the country.
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England and Germany scored their first five penalties each, before Southgate stepped up and saw his spot kick saved.
Andreas Moller then converted the all-important penalty as Germany went on to the final where they would beat Czech Republic 2-1 after extra time.
Now more than a quarter of a century on from that crushing defeat, Seaman wants England to face Germany in the last 16 of Euro 2020 in a bid to exorcise the demons of ’96.
England won Group D and will now face the runner-up of Group F at Wembley on Tuesday.
But Southgate’s men will have to wait until late on Wednesday evening before they know whether they will face France, Germany, Portugal or Hungary in the second round.
And while Seaman acknowledges Germany would be an extremely tough tie, the chance to beat them on penalties is something that makes them an enticing opponent.
Speaking to William Hill, Seaman said: “It would be great if we got Germany and it went to penalties, and for us to win it. It would be great karma for Gareth, and he would be so happy!
“Whoever we get will be tough, but we are capable of beating anyone on our day.
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“But we also need to play much better than we have in the first three games, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve only played at 60% or 70%. We’ve got that extra gear to kick into, but we need to show it.
“Straight away you’d think we want to face Portugal, but France also had that weird result against Hungary where you think ‘hang on, where did that come from?’ Is there weakness there? Who knows?
“Germany look like they’re just starting to wake up. You look at their last performance against Portugal and they were epic.
“I’d want to avoid them unless you can guarantee beating them on penalties, which would be nice!
“Ideally, you’d look at Portugal but even that would be tough, and we have not got a good history against Portugal, especially in the knockouts.”