06/09/2026
There is no moment in sport that isolates a human being more completely than a penalty shootout.
No teammates can help. No tactics apply. The manager stands on the sideline with nothing left to offer. An entire country’s tournament, months of preparation, years of dreaming, collapses into one player, one goalkeeper, and twelve yards of grass.
Roberto Baggio had been Italy’s best player at the 1994 World Cup. He scored five goals to drag Italy to the final almost single-handedly.
Then the shootout came. He stepped up last, needing to score to keep Italy alive. He sent it over the bar. Years later he said: “Sometimes I think about it while I’m awake in bed, when I can’t fall asleep. It’s a wound that never closes completely.”
Zidane scored a Panenka in the 2006 final, one of the most audacious penalties ever taken in a World Cup.
Then he headbutted Materazzi in the 110th minute, got sent off, and never played professional football again. Trezeguet hit the crossbar in the shootout. Italy won. Zidane’s last act in football was a headbutt.
In 1990, West Germany beat England in a semifinal shootout in Turin. Pearce hit the wall. Waddle fired it over the bar. Gazza cried on the pitch.
That night produced England’s most painful football memory and it took them 28 years to reach another semifinal.
And in 2022, Emiliano Martínez saved two penalties against France in the final and psychologically dismantled the rest. Argentina won 4-2. Messi lifted the trophy he had spent 20 years chasing.
One kick. One moment. That’s all it takes to change everything.
Which shootout did we miss? Drop it in the comments.
Follow , we post this every week.
