England manager Roy Hodgson has admitted that his side are practising penalties ahead of Sunday's match with Italy.

The Three Lions meet the Azzurri in the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 where it is possible that the game could be settled with a penalty shootout.

England have crashed out of five major tournaments on penalties in the past 22 years and, despite the practice, Hodgson believes that a shootout on the night against Italy is something that they cannot prepare themselves for.

"We have used the time after training sessions to regularly practise and we'll obviously take it even more seriously now," said Hodgson.

"You hope one day it will make a big difference.

"But you can practise penalty shoot-outs 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 don't.

"Sometimes we've seen the best players miss and the ones you think are not penalty-takers are the ones that smash them in."

England last lost a penalty shootout at the 2006 World Cup against Portugal.