It's knockout from hereon in at Euro 2008 ... when Spain and Italy live in fear

Top saver: Portugal keeper Ricardo repels Lampard's penalty as England go out of the 2006 World Cup in Gelsenkirchen

England's continued failure from 12 yards is well-documented, but what of the quarter-finalists? Which country will be watching through gated fingers and who will be happy to rely on penalties to decide their fate?

As usual, the Germans will have no fears. In six penalty shootouts in World Cup and European Championship football, Germany have progressed five times - twice at the expense of England.

Luiz Felipe Scolari's Portugal also have little to fear. They have a perfect record from their two previous shootouts and a team full of capable penalty-takers.

Ricardo has saved half the penalties he has faced in the last three seasons

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more penalties for his club than any other player at Euro 2008 over the last three seasons (13 out of 17) and goalkeeper Ricardo is something of an expert, saving 50 per cent (four out of eight) of penalties faced in the same period.

Italy, Spain and Holland will be less confident. World Cup winners Italy have won just two of their six shootouts, but will take comfort from Spain's record of two from five - and the fact they held their nerve to win the last World Cup on penalties - should Sunday's quarter-final go the distance.

Spot on: Ronaldo is a sure thing from 12 yards

Alessandro del Piero, Marco Materazzi and Cristiano Lucarelli all boast impressive records (5 out of 6) and goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon must be confident after his vital last-minute save against Romania that kept the Azzurri in the competition.

Spain, the only country to have ever lost a penalty shootout against England, will be hoping Fernando Torres can boost his success rate after scoring just five of his last nine penalties.

However, tournament top scorer David Villa will surely be relied upon to get Spain off to a good start after scoring nine of his last 11spot-kicks.

Coach Luis Aragones could even be tempted to replace Iker Casillas (two saves from 11) with Liverpool's Jose Reina (five saves from 13) should the game go to penalties.

Holland will just be hoping they can finish the job against Russia to avoid matching England's unwanted record of five penalty shootout defeats from six.

Cristiano Ronaldo has converted 13 out 17 penalties in the past three seaasons

However, Rafael van der Vaart has a 85.7 per cent (six out of seven) success rate from the spot and Edwin van der Sar has saved five of the 13 penalties he has faced over the last three seasons.

Croatia, Russia and Turkey have never been subjected to the torment of penalties. Let's just hope for their sake they're more German than English when it comes to holding their nerve.