EURO 2024 Final: If Spain and England go to a penalty shootout, who would have the advantage?
Báo Thanh niên•14/07/2024
It's not out of the question that the EURO 2024 final will be decided by a penalty shootout. Since Southgate took over as England manager, the team has performed better in penalty shootouts than before.
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The finals of the two most recent major tournaments (World Cup, EURO) were decided by penalty shootouts. At EURO 2020, Italy beat England after a penalty shootout. At World Cup 2022, Argentina overcame France after a penalty shootout. Therefore, it's not impossible that the EURO 2024 final will go to a penalty shootout, especially given the increasingly tight and cautious style of play of European teams. England is one of the biggest teams in world football history when it comes to penalty shootouts. Typically, in previous years, opponents who managed to force England into a tense shootout almost always lost.
The England team has never been considered a strong contender in penalty shootouts in the past.
REUTERS
However, England under manager Gareth Southgate has significantly improved this aspect of their game. While England lost to Italy in the EURO 2020 final on penalties, they have won several tournaments before and after, starting with the 2018 World Cup (Southgate's first major tournament managing the England team). Specifically, England beat Colombia 4-3 on penalties in the Round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup (after a 1-1 draw in regular time and extra time). At EURO 2024, on their way to the final, England beat Switzerland 5-3 in the quarter-finals on penalties (the two teams drew 1-1 after 120 minutes of regular time and extra time). Remarkably, in that match, for the first time in history, England converted all five of their penalties. In total, under manager Gareth Southgate, the England team has gone through 3 penalty shootouts: winning 2 and losing 1, a success rate of nearly 67%.
England just beat Switzerland in the quarter-finals on penalties.
REUTERS
During the same period, Spain experienced four penalty shootouts: losing three and winning only one, a success rate of just 25%. Spain lost to Russia 3-4 on penalties in the Round of 16 at the 2018 World Cup (1-1 draw after 120 minutes). At EURO 2020, Spain beat Switzerland 3-1 on penalties in the quarter-finals (1-1 draw after 120 minutes), but then lost to Italy 2-4 on penalties in the semi-finals (1-1 draw after 120 minutes). At the 2022 World Cup, Spain lost to Morocco 0-3 on penalties in the Round of 16 (0-0 draw after 120 minutes). This means that the penalty shootout ability of Spanish players in recent years is no better than that of English players. Spain is now the biggest team to lose in penalty shootouts, not England as it used to be.
The Spanish team didn't perform very well in the penalty shootout.
REUTERS
Commenting on England's improved penalty shootout record at EURO 2024, manager Gareth Southgate said: “We want to change our image. England don’t want to see the nightmare of EURO 2020 come back (that year, they had a very poor penalty shootout against Italy in the final). We’ve assigned different names for the penalty shootouts and everyone is ready.”
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