Jorginho claims he knew Bukayo Saka would miss decisive Euro 2020 penalty

Chelsea midfielder Jorginho claims he knew Bukayo Saka would miss England's decisive penalty kick in the Euro 2020 final, moments after the Italian had seen his own effort saved.

Jorginho - who is usually so reliable from 12 yards - had the chance to score the tournament-winning penalty after the match ended 1-1 after 120 minutes at Wembley, but was denied by Jordan Pickford to give the Three Lions a slither of hope after both Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho had spurned their own spot kicks.

Arsenal winger Saka then stepped up needing to score to keep England's hopes alive and take the shootout to sudden death, but devastatingly saw his strike saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma to win the Henri Delaunay Trophy for the Azzurri.

Speaking in a recent interview with the Telegraph, Jorginho claims that although his own miss 'still hurts', he knew it was 'done' when he walked back to the halfway line and saw Saka stepping up to face Donnarumma.

“I still think about the final, especially the penalty," he said. "People might say it doesn’t matter, but it does for me. It hurts. It still hurts now, even though we won. Whoever says it doesn’t because it doesn’t matter is a liar.”

Asked how many times he has watched the final back, Jorginho added: “Not that much, probably because it hurts a bit. I couldn’t believe it, Pickford did very well.

“I just thought ‘f***, I disappointed my teammates’ because they trusted me so much in that moment. Then, when I walked back, and it was a long, long walk, I looked and saw it was [Bukayo] Saka and Gigio [Donnarumma] and I was pretty sure he was going to save it. I was like ‘it’s OK, it’s done’.”

Jorginho also won the Champions League with Chelsea in May and is an unlikely contender for the Ballon d'Or.

Asked what he would have said at the start of 2021 if he had been told he'd finish it with Euro 2020 and Champions League winners' medals, the UEFA men's player of the year award and potentially the label of best player on the planet, added: “Ha, I’d say ‘where can I sign? In everyone’s mind, that wouldn’t be possible because it would be, like, too much. But then nothing’s impossible, you just need to believe. And want it, really want it and then you can achieve it.

“It’s unreal. Because my dream was just to be a professional footballer and then things started to happen and I kept believing and working really hard.”