Watch: England break their World Cup penalty shoot-out duck after 28 years of hurt

It's taken 28 years, since their first defeat at Italia '90, but England have finally won a World Cup penalty shoot-out at the fourth attempt.

The Three Lions overcame Colombia 4-3 on penalties to book a quarter-final date with Sweden on Saturday after a gruelling 1-1 draw in Moscow's Spartak Stadium.

The weight of history loomed large over this young England team, which contained no surviving members of the side that lost on penalties to Portugal 12 years ago.

Defeats to Germany in the semi-finals at Italia '90, Argentina at France '98 and Portugal at Germany '06 set a precedent that has haunted the nation.

A sole shoot-out success, on home soil over Spain during Euro '96, was followed up within days by another shoot-out failure against Germany – the decisive penalty missed by Gareth Southgate.

So there's a certain irony about a team led by Southgate finally breaking England's World Cup penalty shoot-out duck.

And, like Southgate, it was a defensive player with little experience of taking penalties in senior football who stood up to take the decisive kick – only this time Eric Dier made no mistake.

David Ospina in the Colombia goal got a hand to it, but Dier had planted the ball just far enough in the corner that the Arsenal man couldn't quite get enough behind it.

England advance to the quarter-finals, where they'll meet Sweden in Samara on Saturday.

    About Dave Donnelly

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