Penalty shoot-out (association football)
The penalty shoot-out is one of the three methods of breaking a draw that are approved by the Laws of the Game; the others are extra time and, for two-legged ties, the away goals rule.
Shoot-outs are only used in competitions that require a match-winner at the end of the game[1] – this is predominantly in knockout "cup" ties, as opposed to round-robin "leagues"; they decide which team progresses to the next round of a tournament, or wins it.
A 2011 study published in the journal Psychological Science found goalkeepers dived to the right 71% of the time when their team was losing, but only 48% when ahead and 49% when tied, a phenomenon believed to be related to certain right-preferring behaviour in social mammals.
Michael Almog, later president of the Israel Football Association, described Dagan's proposal in a letter published in FIFA News in August 1969.
[29] FIFA's proposal was discussed on 20 February 1970 by a working party of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which recommended its acceptance, although "not entirely satisfied" with it.
[31] In 2006, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported a claim by former referee Karl Wald from Frankfurt am Main, that he had first proposed the shoot-out in 1970 to the Bavarian FA.
"[34] In the event, drawing of lots was never required to decide the winner of a knockout match in any World Cup finals, although it was used in a 1969 qualification tie when Morocco advanced at the expense of Tunisia.
When Santos counter-objected to a replay, Paulista FA president Osvaldo Teixeira Duarte annulled the original match and declared both teams joint champions.
For example, in a UEFA Euro 2004 quarter-final match, Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo saved a kick (without gloves) from England's Darius Vassell and then scored the winning shot.
More recently, in the 2023 African Cup of Nations, DR Congo's Lionel Mpasi shot the ball into the top right-hand corner against Mohamed Gabaski, who had been a penalty-saving specialist in Egypt's run to the final in Cameroon two years prior.
[55] Antonín Panenka (Czechoslovakia) decided the penalty shoot-out at the UEFA Euro 1976 Final against West Germany with a famous chip to the middle of the goal.
The England national team has lost seven (out of ten) penalty shoot-outs in major tournament finals, including losses to Germany in the semi-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 1996 (the latter following a win over Spain by the same method in the previous round).
During the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Switzerland set an unwanted new record in the round of 16 shoot-out against Ukraine by failing to convert any of their penalties, losing 3–0.
The goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovskyi (Ukraine) became the first not to concede a single goal in the penalty shoot-out, saving two of the Swiss attempts, with another shot hitting the crossbar.
[61] The following year, Liverpool beat West Ham United in the FA Cup Final's second ever penalty shoot-out.
Majstorovic of AEK hit the horizontal crossbar in the 5th penalty giving the chance to Djordjevic (for whom it was the closing game of his career) to seal the victory for Olympiacos.
As Roma's Bruno Conti prepared to take his kick, Grobbelaar walked towards the goal smiling confidently at the cameras lined-up behind, then proceeded to bite the back of the net, in imitation of eating spaghetti.
In the 2003 UEFA Champions League Final the penalty-shoot out has caused controversy among many fans as replays showed that Milan goalkeeper Dida was off his goal line when saving penalties from Trezeguet, Zalayeta and Montero.
In the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Iker Casillas and Manuel Neuer each saved two spot kicks.
Didier Drogba dispatched the winning penalty, having been unable to take the fifth kick (missed by Terry) in the 2008 final due to a red card in extra time.
[68] On 26 May 2021, Villarreal defeated Manchester United 11–10 on penalties in the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final, after the game ended 1–1 after extra time.
Every player on the pitch took penalties – Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea was the only one to miss, with his shot being saved by Gerónimo Rulli to hand Villarreal its first major title.
[91] The result is often seen as a lottery rather than a test of skill;[90] managers Luiz Felipe Scolari[92] and Roberto Donadoni[93] described them as such after their teams had respectively won and lost shoot-outs.
[97] Red Star Belgrade's performance beating Olympique Marseille in the 1991 European Cup Final is often condemned for having "played for penalties" from the kick-off;[98][99] a tactic coach Ljupko Petrović freely admitted to.
[107] As part of a trial to reduce a potential first-mover advantage, the IFAB sanctioned in March 2017 to test a different sequence of taking penalties, known as "ABBA", that mirrors the serving sequence in a tennis tiebreak (team A kicks first, team B kicks second):[108] The trial was initially scheduled at the 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship and the 2017 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship in May 2017 if a penalty shoot-out would be needed.
[112] During IFAB's 133rd Annual Business Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland on 22 November 2018, it was agreed that due to the lack of strong support mainly because of its complexity, the ABBA option would no longer be used in future competitions.
When the third place playoff of the 1972 Olympic tournament between the Soviets and East Germany ended 2–2 after extra time,[115] the bronze medal was shared by the two teams.
[96] Henry Birtles' "Advantage" proposal is for the shoot-out to be held before extra-time, and only acting as a tiebreak if the game remains a draw after the full 120 minutes.
The obvious flaw is that the team that wins the penalty shoot-out would be inclined to play defensively in extra time in the knowledge that a draw would put them through.
The only exception was in the MLS Cup Final in which a match tied after 90 minutes would be followed by a maximum of two 15-minute extra time sessions on a golden goal basis.
