What’s a panenka penalty kick? Explaining identify, type, well-known objectives, and epic fails

Regardless of being fairly an outdated sport, soccer continues to evolve in surprising methods. 

Gamers preserve discovering new and other ways to do issues on the pitch. 

With regards to penalty kicks, a mess of strategies have sprung up through the years as gamers look to deceive the goalkeeper and provides themselves an additional edge.

Probably the most well-known of those approaches is the panenka. So what’s it and why does it proceed to show heads? 

MORE: Hakimi panenka takes Morocco into World Cup quarterfinals

What’s a panenka?

A panenka is a penalty kick which sees the taker calmly chip the ball proper down the center of aim. 

The method depends closely on deception with goalkeepers usually anticipating a participant to powerfully shoot to 1 aspect. 

When all goes to plan, a panenka will see a participant rating after the goalkeeper has already dived left or proper. 

The spotkick was named after Czech attacker Antonin Panenka, who famously used it within the ultimate of the 1976 Euros. After Czechoslovakia and West Germany could not be break up, the match went to a penalty shootout with Panenka changing the profitable spotkick with a misleading chip down the center. 

Whereas it left West Germany’s goalkeeper Sepp Maier red-faced, Panenka pressured that was by no means his intention. 

“I think that he doesn’t just like the sound of my identify an excessive amount of. I by no means wished to make him look ridiculous,” Panenka instructed UEFA.com.

“Quite the opposite, I selected the penalty as a result of I noticed and realised it was the simplest and easiest recipe for scoring a aim. It’s a easy recipe.”

It’s Antonín Panenka’s birthday immediately, so let’s have fun his crowning achievement that has made so many nice gamers look so daft through the years 🇨🇿

pic.twitter.com/zBVqrBk8uj

— The Set Items (@thesetpieces) December 2, 2022

What’s so particular a few panenka?

Whereas rightly loathed by goalkeepers, a panenka requires a sure degree of confidence from those who determine to take them. 

By taking pictures proper down the center, a participant is banking on the goalkeeper diving to 1 aspect and in consequence should encourage them to take action. 

This requires a panenka taker to not give their intentions away they usually must be additional cautious in the case of their run up. 

The chip down the center then additionally requires a exact quantity of energy to make sure the ball does not go over the crossbar however nonetheless comfortably finds the again of the online. 

Ought to a participant pull all that off and rating, the result’s simple on the attention as they make a high-pressure state of affairs appear to be a night stroll. 

Well-known panenka objectives

Probably the most current examples of a panenka got here on the 2022 World Cup.

Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi used the method to attain the profitable penalty in a Spherical of 16 shootout in opposition to Spain – the country where Hakimi was born and raised. 

Probably the most well-known panenkas got here within the 2006 World Cup ultimate when Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring for France with such a spotkick after simply six minutes.

Zidane executed the panenka to perfection to go away Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon stranded in aim. 

One other iconic instance of the panenka got here within the 2012 Euros when Andrea Pirlo used the method in a quarterfinal penalty shootout victory in opposition to England. 

🇮🇹 Andrea Pirlo + Panenka = 👏👏👏

🎂 Blissful seventieth birthday to the daddy of chipped penalties, Antonín Panenka! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/nAhLjjLsAG

— UEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) December 2, 2018

Panenka penalty fails

Whereas a panenka appears to be like slick when pulled off, a failed try appears to be like something however. 

If goalkeepers do not dive or takers fail to hit the ball correctly, a panenka can look fairly ridiculous. 

Even the most effective gamers have been caught out by them with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Agüero and Gary Lineker amongst some notable panenka failures. 

In Australia, the A-League Males championship was selected penalties in 2018/19 with Brendon Santalab’s final kick as an expert footballer being a failed panenka which price his aspect dearly. 

🎉 Blissful birthday to Antonín Panenka, who turns 74 immediately.

Here is 98 seconds of individuals getting his penalty method horribly mistaken…pic.twitter.com/Xg8VRoIBN2

— The Sportsman (@TheSportsman) December 2, 2022