FLAIR JORDAN

Sometimes he'll give glove a bad bad name but Pickford is England linchpin

- ANDY DUNN

WHEN Jordan Pickford had almost been humiliated by an audacious corner-kick from Xherdan Shaqiri, he looked over at the former Stoke City man and grinned.

After Pickford saved Manuel Akanji's penalty in the shoot-out, he fistpumped towards the thousands of England fans behind his goal.

When Marc Guehi first played in front of Pickford as a team-mate, he declared himself "shocked" by the England keeper's verbals.

In the unlikely event you need evidence that most goalkeepers are a little mad, then Pickford is Exhibit A.

But, game by game, the argument that Pickford is the most important player in Gareth Southgate's squad grows stronger and stronger.

"I'll always back myself to save one of the five penalties in a shoot-out and then it's up to our takers to execute perfectly," says Pickford.

And that, of course, is exactly what happened in Dusseldorf on Saturday.