Jordan Henderson admits he will forever be in Jordan Pickford's debt after penalty heroics: 'I can't thank him enough'

Jordan Henderson has admitted he will be forever in Jordan Pickford’s debt for making sure he did not become England’s latest penalty shoot-out fall-guy. And England’s shoot-out success over Colombia meant Henderson stretched his own extraordinary international unbeaten run to 28 games, which is the longest in the nation’s history.

Goalkeeper Pickford became England’s hero by saving from Carlos Bacca to secure a quarter-final tie against Sweden on Saturday, but Henderson is only too aware that he could have hit the headlines for very different reasons.

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Before Tuesday night, England had never won a World Cup penalty shoot-out and had only come out on top in one during Euro ‘96 - the same tournament in which manager Gareth Southgate went on to miss against Germany.

Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina saved Henderson’s spot-kick before Mateus Uribe hit the bar, Bacca saw his kick brilliantly stopped by Pickford and Eric Dier netted the decisive penalty for England.

Both players started their careers at Sunderland, but never played together at club level. Asked what he said to Pickford at the end of the shoot-out, Henderson said: “I thanked him. I can't thank him enough, I'm forever in his debt. He says the Mackems stick together!

“He deserves it, he got a bit of criticism last week, undeservedly, so I am so happy for him to achieve that. He made some fantastic saves in the game, delighted for him, delighted for everyone, and for Eric Dier to score the winner as well was brilliant.”

Pickford added: “He said ‘well done you fellow Mackem’. I said, ‘Jesus, I've helped you out there lad'. That's team-mates isn't it? A bit of craic. We're together, when one goes down we've got to pick them back up.”

England have now won 22 and drawn six of the last 28 games in which Henderson has been involved. He showed a touch of class by breaking off from England’s celebrations to console Colombia’s James Rodriguez and struggled to recall his own penalty amid the emotion of the evening.

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“I can hardly remember it,” he said. “I just went through the process that I normally do, that I've been working on. Maybe it was a good height for the keeper if anything, it needed to be higher or lower but in penalties you can miss or there can be a good save but, thankfully, the lads dug me out.”

Asked if he would now take another one, Henderson replied: “It wouldn’t put me off, but it might put Gareth off! I'd take another one but obviously it's down to the manager and I would understand if he chose someone else.”

Pickford revealed that he had highlighted Bacca as being a man who he could save from during his penalty preparation ahead of facing Colombia. “We knew Bacca was maybe a bit of weak link on the penalties from watching his previous ones,” said Pickford. “I trusted my instinct and went that way - strong hands, I'm happy.

“I just thought four is a pressure penalty. Fifth penalty's got to score to maybe stay in it. I've thought, 'I'm going right here' and bang! I used my top hand. I get criticised about the top hand, but I don't think I'll be getting criticised about it now.”

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Thibaut Courtois had been among those who had questioned Pickford over his size following the Group G defeat to Belgium, but the 24 year-old remained confident in his own ability. “It doesn't annoy me,” he said. “I know if I can do better, I know myself straight away. It doesn't take people to criticise me.

“I've had a right go at the Belgium goal and if I save it people would say 'what a save'. If any other keeper in the tournament had a go like that and it goes in, then nothing would have been said. But we've moved on from Belgium and beaten Colombia, a hard and tough game and now it's Sweden to look forward to.”

Jamie Vardy had been due to take England’s final penalty, but his groin injury meant the order was changed and Dier stepped up - even though he cannot remember taking part in a competitive shoot-out before then.

Asked when he had last taken a penalty before Tuesday night, Dier replied: “A penalty? In a match? I don't know. It's a strange one. Obviously you don't do it very often, so it's a bit weird, but it was OK.”

In terms of the order of the takers, he added: “I had no idea. We were hoping it didn’t go to penalties!

“I didn't know the order until the manager came and spoke to us. He didn't tell us the order before the game. Obviously with substitutions the order can change, so after the extra-time he just told me that I was number five.

“While you're waiting to take it, it's nerve-wracking but once I walked up, when I was going to take it I was quite calm to be honest. The feeling of winning on penalties is kind of surreal. It takes over you. It's fantastic.”