Six years ago, Sancho and Rashford were brought on by manager Southgate to take penalties in the EURO 2020 final against Italy. The result is well remembered: they missed their penalties, and England lost the championship right on their home ground, Wembley.
The trend of bringing players on in extra time with the hope that their improved fitness and concentration will improve in penalty shootouts continues. In the Germany vs. Paraguay match, the players who came on late and took penalties were Amiri (Germany, on in the 109th minute) and Balbuena (Paraguay, on in the 120+2 minute). Amiri successfully converted his penalty, while Balbuena's shot was saved by Neuer.
Bringing a player on suddenly at the end of a match and then letting them take penalties is actually a mistake. Players like Balbuena find it difficult to get into the game, both physically, mentally, and with the right concentration. Data from Opta over the past 30 years of European Championships and World Cups confirms this. Eight out of ten players who came on after the 115th minute missed their penalties, a success rate of only 20%.
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Among those who missed their penalties was Jamie Carragher, who came on in the 119th minute and only touched the ball once before missing his penalty in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final. England were eliminated from that match. More recently, there were the cases of Sancho and Rashford in the EURO 2020 final.
However, Carragher, Rashford, and Sancho all had at least one touch of the ball before the penalty shootout. Balbuena didn't even get a touch. Similarly, in the quarter-finals of EURO 2016, Simone Zaza's first touch of the ball was in the penalty shootout against Germany. At the time, Zaza was criticized and ridiculed for his comical style of taking long, small steps before shooting. Later, Zaza's penalty kick became a laughingstock for many years.
In fact, bringing a player onto the field to take a single, but extremely important, penalty kick is a rather novel idea. Only 12 players in the history of World Cups and EUROs have come on after the 115th minute, and only 3 of those cases occurred before 2016. In an era where football relies heavily on statistics, this will be a valuable reference for teams at the 2026 World Cup.
Let the starting players take the penalty shootouts. From EURO 1996 to the present, starting players have successfully converted 201 out of 277 penalties (in World Cups/EUROs), a success rate of 73%. Players who came on in the second half only succeeded in 18 out of 32 penalties, a rate of only 56%. The player who missed England's decisive penalty in the EURO 2020 final was Saka, who came on in the 71st minute.
The conclusion is rather harsh: Strong legs don't equate to alertness when pressure is at its peak.
Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/the-thao/worldcup-2026/dung-thay-nguoi-de-da-luan-luu-1047207
