Long past midnight in Donetsk on Wednesday, Roy Hodgson was talking about penalty shootouts. It comes to every England manager who reaches a tournament and you could imagine him mentally compiling the list of men whom he might entrust with the task.
If penalty shootouts are a distillation of a team's character then England have revealed their true colours in such high-pressure moments. At the 2006 World Cup, the last time they lost on penalties, it was Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Jamie Carragher who missed against Portugal - three individuals on whom you would normally bet the house that they would hold their nerve. Those sloppy penalties were symptomatic of a failing regime under Sven Goran Eriksson.
Hodgson said his players had been practising penalties and now that the prospect of a shoot-out is more real, they will step up preparation.
"We'll obviously take it even more seriously now," he said.
"But as you well know, you can practise penalty shootouts until the cows come home. It's really your composure, your confidence, your ability to really block everything out and forget the occasion that means you score or you don't score."