How to take a World Cup shootout penalty

The World Cup is entering the quarter-final stage, which means we could have a few more high-stake penalty shootouts ahead of us.

But after four memorable shootouts in the last 32 and last 16, we thought it was worth recrunching the numbers.

We have already seen the first World Cup sudden-death spot-kicks since 1994, two different shootouts with a joint record five penalties missed, and only the second goalkeeper to come on as a substitute for a shootout.

So what have we learned from the 360 penalties taken in 39 shootouts since 1982?

The Netherlands, after losing to Morocco in the last 32, joined Spain on a record four shootout defeats.

Both sides have only won one of their five shootouts - and have missed nine penalties in total.

England (eight misses) are one of three teams on three defeats.

The most successful country is, by some margin, Argentina, who have won six of their seven, including in the 2022 final in Qatar.

Croatia have won four out of four, while Germany lost their first World Cup penalty shootout this summer to Paraguay - to make it four from five.

Colombia, who lost to Switzerland in the last 16 on Tuesday, Japan, Mexico and Romania have lost two out of two.

With their win over Australia in the last 32, Egypt joined Belgium and South Korea as the only teams to have scored all their penalties.

Mexico have the worst record with a 29% success rate from the spot (two scored from seven).

Switzerland had a 0% record (three misses from three) before beating Colombia to make it 50%.

Lionel Messi has scored all his World Cup shootout penalites, but has a 50-50 success rate during games

Only two players have scored penalties in three different World Cup shootouts before - Argentina's Lionel Messi and Croatia's Luka Modric, who both have a 100% success rate.

One of Messi's came in the 2022 final against France.

However, Messi's record from the spot during World Cup games is only four from eight, including two missed at the 2026 tournament.

Some 26 players have netted two out of two in shootouts, while Italy's Roberto Baggio scored two out of three - but the one he missed was the crucial penalty in the 1994 final.

There must be something in the water in Zadar because Modric and two of the four goalkeepers to save the most World Cup shootout penalties are from Croatia's fifth largest city.

Danijel Subasic (all in 2018) and Dominik Livakovic (all in 2022) have saved four spot-kicks in World Cup shootouts (from 10 and eight faced respectively).

West Germany's Harald Schumacher (faced nine) and Argentina's Sergio Goycochea (faced 10) have also saved four.

Subasic, Livakovic and Portugal's Ricardo are the only keepers to save three in one shootout.

Ricardo has the highest percentage save record with 75%, having faced four spot-kicks.

Players who pick one side of the goal have a better chance of scoring than those who go down the middle - whether that is a Panenka, rolling a penalty along the floor or just hitting it as hard as you can and hoping.

Of players to put their kick to their right, 73% have scored, with 71% netting when they go left and only 58% succeeding with a central kick.

There are actually fewer penalties saved down the middle (18% compared with 22% by players who pick a side).

But 24% of central penalties miss the target (including hitting the woodwork) compared with only 7% of shots to either side.

All four teams to go first in the shootout in 2026 have lost - but until this year there was not much difference with 17 of 35 (49%) of teams to take the first penalty winning.

There is not really any difference in success rate between the first, second and third round of takers for each team (72%, 72% and 74%).

The fourth round of takers net 60% of their kicks, with it rising to 67% for the fifth.

Only three shootouts have gone to sudden death (including Paraguay and Germany this year) - with a 50% hit rate of the four players taking the sixth penalties. No shootouts this summer have gone beyond six penalties per side.

The least successful taker (outside of sudden death) is the player who goes eighth overall - the second kicker in the fourth round of penalties - who scores only 58% of the time.

There must be a reason for that - perhaps the pressure of keeping their team in it before the final round of kicks - because the same is true of

European Championship shootouts.

Incidentally, the players who take the fourth and fifth penalties overall have the best success rate (77%).

As you would expect, forwards have the best success rate in World Cup penalty shootouts with 73% (out of 112 attempts).

Midfielders have netted 69% of theirs (out of 156), with defenders scoring 62% of the time (out of 92).

No keeper has taken one yet at a World Cup, largely because mavericks like Jose Luis Chilavert, Rogerio Ceni and Hans-Jorg Butt have not been involved in any, and no shootouts have gone past the sixth round of kicks.

Left-footed players fare slightly better than right-footed ones (71% v 68%), although the opposite was true until this World Cup.

It is impossible to gauge exactly who has only come on for a penalty shootout.

But if we take outfield players who come on for the final five minutes of stoppage time, there are only seven (five of which came since 2022) - and only three of those scored.

This summer two penalty takers have come on in stoppage time at the end of extra time and not had a touch before the final whistle.

Fabian Balbuena saw his penalty saved by Germany's Manuel Neuer, although his Paraguay won the last-32 shootout.

Mahmoud Saber scored Egypt's first penalty in the last-32 win over Australia - against a keeper who also had not touched the ball (more on him shortly).

Paulo Dybala came on past the 120-minute mark at the end of the 2022 final and scored in Argentina's shootout win over France.

In Morocco's last-16 win over Spain that year, both sides brought on players in the final two minutes - Badr Benoun and Pablo Sarabia - and both missed.

England's Jamie Carragher came on with two minutes to go against Portugal in the 2006 quarter-final and had his kick saved by Ricardo, having initially netted but been ordered to retake because the whistle had not been blown.

The first player to come on in the final five minutes of extra time and score in a shootout was West Germany's Pierre Littbarski, who netted in a quarter-final win over Mexico in 1986.

Two keepers have come on in the closing stages of a World Cup game with penalties in mind.

The Netherlands' Tim Krul came on in the 121st minute against Costa Rica in the 2014 quarter-finals - and saved two penalties in their win.

He remained an unused substitute in the next round - when it again went to penalties - and the Netherlands went out, with Jasper Cillessen not saving any.

This summer it was Mat Ryan's turn for Australia - but it did not work as Egypt scored all four penalties.

While Krul knew about the plan in advance, Ryan was told with a few minutes remaining that he would be coming on if the game went to a shootout.