England goalkeeper David James is ready for a penalty shootout against arch-rivals Germany on Sunday.

The national team were beaten by Germany on penalties in the World Cup semi-finals in 1990 and six years later at the same stage in the 1996 European Championships.

James has been saving spot kicks in training and has all the evidence available to study Germany’s takers in the last 16 game in Bloemfontein.

But ideally the former Villa goalkeeper wants to win the game in 90 minutes to avoid the lottery of a shootout.

He said: “If after 90 minutes and extra-time there is no winner, the key issue is homework.

“At Euro 2004, we didn’t have access to all the information with regards to penalties but we have this time and I’m confident about saving as many as possible.”

Jamesis so confident about saving spot-kicks that he wanted Slovenia to get one in the final group match.

He said: “We had videos on all the three sides in the group stages – Landon Donovan being the United States’ taker – and I was hoping for a romantic ending against Slovenia with them getting a penalty so I could save it!

“The chances are there will be at least five regular penalty takers.”

As regards practising spot kicks in training, the Portsmouth No 1 believes it’s a double edged sword.

He said: “It’s a bit of a difficult one because if you save them all in training, it doesn’t give confidence to the outfield players.

“Apparently Germany have not missed a shootout for a long time, but the intention for us is to win the game in 90 minutes.

“If it goes to penalties, there’s an opportunity for Germany to miss.”

England have failed so often on the big stage against Germany – also losing 3-2 at the quarter-final stage in the 1970 World Cup after being 2-0 up – but James is confident of their chances this time.

He said: “Germany are a decent outfit but having gone to Berlin two years ago and beat them 2-1 we are confident.

“If it goes to a penalty shootout, I’m confident we’ll do what’s needed.”