In this article…
Euro 2024 Penalty Shootout Trends
With the group stages now over, all attention focuses on the round of 16. There’s no comfort to a bad start in this round, with all teams competing in a one-off tie that will either be settled in 90 minutes, extra time or the drama of a penalty shootout. In this article, we take a look at the last 16 teams and their respective penalty shootout records.
Penalty shootouts were introduced in the 1976 edition of the Euros, where previously teams would play a replay if the scores were level. Since 1976, there have been 90 knockout matches and 22 of those have gone to a penalty shootout, a rate of 24.4%. In the last edition of the Euros, we had four penalty shootouts, a joint-highest total alongside Euro 96. However, it should be noted that because there were only 16 teams at Euro 96, four out of the seven knockout games went to pens, a percentage that might not be beaten for a long time!
Which 2 teams at the Euros have a 100% shootout record? Are England as bad at penalties as we think? Does anyone beat the Germans? All these questions and more will be answered!
As the eagerly awaited Euro 2024 knockout stages approaches, the team at Andy’s Bet Club are getting ready to smash the second half of the tournament, bringing you daily Euro 2024 bet builder predictions & betting tips alongside shot on target tips, Euro 2024 accumulator tips, and football card betting tips and plenty more, which you can find on our hub and football predictions page.
Be sure to also check out our experts’ updated selections for the Euro 2024 outright winner, Euro 2024 Golden Boot predictions and a range of guides available such as Euro 2024 set piece takers guide, goals in the knockout stages and many more.
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🔮 The History of Penalty Shootout’s for Euro 2024 sides
Six of the 16 teams have never faced a penalty shootout at the Euros finals:
🇦🇹 Austria
🇧🇪 Belgium
🇷🇴 Romania
🇸🇮 Slovenia
🇸🇰 Slovakia
🇬🇪 Georgia
Of those 6 sides, only Belgium and Romania have faced penalty shootouts before, with Belgium winning their only shootout all the way back in 1986 in a World Cup quarter-final tie against Spain. Romania lost two shootouts with their golden generation in successive World Cups in 1990 and 1994 against Sweden and the Republic of Ireland respectively.
The only other side aside from Belgium to have a 100% record in penalty shootouts is Turkey with their solitary shootout victory against Croatia at the 2008 Euros.
England fans will be dreading another tournament exit on penalties, but should they? Sadly, the answer is yes! England have played 5 shootouts at the Euros, winning just once against Spain at Euro 96. If we combine that with their World Cup record, it makes for grim reading, with just 2 shootout victories in 9 attempts.
The only other major nation with a similarly poor record is the Netherlands, with just two out of four Euros shootout wins and just 2 out of 8 including the World Cup. This gives them the marginally less dubious honour of a 25% win rate compared to England’s 22%
🥅 Who reigns supreme at penalties?
Just on Euros records, three teams are tied with a 66% win rate: Spain, Germany, and Portugal. Spain won four of their six attempts and the Germans and Portuguese won 2 of their 3 respective attempts.
🇩🇪 Germany
When you combine World Cup records, the Germans have lost just 1 of their 7 attempts in penalty shootouts.
🇵🇹 Portugal
The Portuguese have lost just 1 of their last 4 penalty shootouts across their Euros and World Cup records.
🇮🇹 Italy
Italy have won slightly more than they’ve lost with 4 wins and 3 defeats at penalties at the Euros, snatching the 2020 trophy in a battle from 12 yards with England. However, when combined with their World Cup record, their record stands at 5 wins and 6 defeats, a win rate of just 45%.
🇫🇷🇨🇭France and Switzerland
The French and the Swiss have both faced 3 shootouts, winning 1 and losing 2, with a win rate of 33%. Factoring in World Cups, the French have won 3 of their 8 attempts and the Swiss just 1 of their 4.
Euros shootout Record
| Team | Shootouts | Wins | Losses | Win % |
| Spain | 6 | 4 | 2 | 66.67 |
| Germany | 3 | 2 | 1 | 66.67 |
| Portugal | 3 | 2 | 1 | 66.67 |
| Italy | 7 | 4 | 3 | 57.14 |
| Denmark | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00 |
| France | 3 | 1 | 2 | 33.33 |
| Switzerland | 3 | 1 | 2 | 33.33 |
| Netherlands | 4 | 1 | 3 | 25.00 |
| England | 5 | 1 | 4 | 20.00 |
| Turkey | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Denmark | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00 |
| Austria | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Belgium | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Romania | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Slovenia | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Slovakia | – | – | – | 0.00 |
| Georgia | – | – | – | 0.00 |
🏆 A note on other tournaments
It should be noted in this article that we’ve looked only at Euros and World Cups for our data. In recent seasons, a new tournament, the Nation’s League has seen a number of penalty shootouts.
England fans will have some hope from the B league final in 2019 where they beat the Swiss 6-5. Last year, Spain beat Croatia on penalties to secure the Nation’s League trophy as well.
* All odds displayed correctly at the time of publishing *
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