Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inbox We have more newsletters Get daily celeb exclusives and behind the scenes house tours direct to your inbox We have more newsletters Gary Lineker has confessed that watching two of England's penalty takers during the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Switzerland nearly brought him to tears. The match saw England triumph after a nail-biting penalty shootout, with Cole Palmer , Jude Bellingham, Bukayo Saka , Ivan Toney, and Trent Alexander-Arnold all scoring from the spot, leading to a 5-3 win. It was Saka and Alexander-Arnold's penalties that touched Lineker deeply.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, he said: "I was so pleased. I did actually, watching it, get a little bit emotional." His co-host Micah Richards chimed in with: "You was tearing up a little.
" Lineker then drew parallels between Saka's moment and the experience of his former teammate Stuart Pearce. He reminisced: "Yeah, I'm a softy - I never used to be, I was really cold as a player." He went on to describe how Pearce's journey resonated with him: "It reminded me so much of the Stuart Pearce moment.
Stuart Pearce missed in 1990 when I played. He's such a diamond of a bloke and a wonderful footballer. And then we played against Spain, penalty shootout in Euro 1996 and he stepped forward again.
" The memory of Pearce's redemption clearly still affects Lineker, who recalled being in the crowd: "I was in the crowd and I was thinking .
