England penalty shoot-out hero Ivan Toney teased fans with a hilarious video mimicking his distinctive no-look penalty style.
The Brentford striker was the latest guest on the Diary Room series, one of the England camp’s behind the scenes shows on social media, and played basketball, connect four, darts and read a book all without looking.
While his no-look penalty on the most prominent stage seemed outrageous to fans, for Toney it was nothing out of the ordinary.
‘I’ve always done this. I feel like it has been working for me and hopefully it can continue,’ he said.
‘I always look at the keeper no matter who it is. I always wait to see if he makes the first move and if he doesn’t make the first move I’ll pick a corner to put it in,’ he explained.
England star Ivan Toney plays connect four without looking as he jokes for the fans
Joker Toney pauses to read, without looking, on England’s Diary Room behind the scenes show
Toney makes a no-look basketball shot mimicking his no-look penalty against Switzerland
The penalty shoot-out hero added: ‘I was excited, I obviously got to step on the pitch again. I got to take a penalty and and yeh, I think that was five good penalties.’
Toney scored England’s fourth penalty of the quarter-final shootout against Switzerland in ice-cold fashion in a perfect set of spot-kicks by the Three Lions.
Despite the high stakes of the moment, Toney strode up in his familiar confident manner that followers of Brentford and the Premier League know so well.
Toney stared Swiss goalkeeper Yann Sommer down waiting for him to flinch before tucking his shoot calmly into the bottom left corner past a helpless Sommer.
‘To be fair he [Sommer] didn’t break [eye contact] but I put it in the corner. He dived the right way but it was in the corner so thankfully it went in,’ said Toney.
The distinctive penalty style didn’t just entertain the fans either. Fellow England star Bukayo Saka was left in awe of his team-mate’s skill.
‘It’s crazy. We’re all just in awe, I don’t know how you cannot look at the ball,’ said Saka.
Luke Shaw also chimed in, adding: ‘I cannot believe it. It is crazy, especially when you watch back the video. There’s one just showing his face and it’s mad.’
The eyes have it: Toney’s no-look penalty against Switzerland he joked about for England fans
It was a ridiculously suave moment coming after Cole Palmer, Jude Bellingham and Saka had all scored their penalties.
Switzerland’s Manuel Akanji made the decisive error, missing his country’s first penalty.
Trent Alexander-Arnold then smashed home the final penalty to send England through to a semi-final date with the Netherlands after winning 5-3 in the shoot-out.
