England captain Steven Gerrard says the players are ready for penalties
Steven Gerrard says England are practizing their penalties ahead of the World Cup finals which begin in Brazil next week.
England have been beaten on penalties in six of their last 10 major championships, the last two years ago when they lost to Italy in the quarter-finals of the European Championships.
Gerrard, who was on target during that decider having missed from the spot six years previously against Portugal, told the BBC: "We are going to practize penalties a lot but it is a difficult situation to put into words and describe it.
"There is a lot of pressure. You have an awful lot more time to think about your penalty and what is at stake is a lot bigger and it is a pressure situation.
"A penalty shoot-out is a more pressurized situation than any one penalty in a league game.
"Unfortunately for me I failed in that situation when I took a penalty in a World Cup environment and it was a difficult atmosphere to be in.
"I learned my lessons from that and a couple of years ago I scored the penalty I was asked to take."
England are 28/1 to win World Cup 2014, and with sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters having traveled with the squad to Brazil, skipper Gerrard added: "I can understand the fixation because we have failed in quite a few shoot-outs.
"But I would say don't get carried away with it because it might never come about.
"As players hopefully we perform well enough in 90 minutes or 120 minutes to prevent it going to a shoot-out. But we will be ready for a shoot-out if it comes around."
