It can be very handy to know who might be the player stepping up to take penalties for different nations for many reasons.

Being on penalties can really make a difference to a player’s value in the goalscorer markets.

There were 16 penalties awarded in the 40 matches at Euro 2020, 0.4 per match. Nine of the 16 awarded were converted (56%) which is a low percentage, generally, penalties are converted at a rate of around 78-80%.

At Euro 2016, 12 penalties were awarded across the 40 matches, 0.3 per match. At this tournament eight of the 12 were scored (75%), which is far more in line with general conversion rates.

Given this data, being a penalty taker should give a player around 15% greater chance of scoring a goal in any particular match.

Keep an eye on our Euro 2024 betting tips & predictions hub, which features a range of outright predictions such as our Euro 2024 top goalscorer tips, players to watch Euro 2024, Euro 2024 dark horses and much more. We’ve also compiled a list of the best Euro 2024 betting promotions & free bets giving you a bunch of free bets pre-Euros.

🥅 Penalty Takers

Team Penalty Takers

We looked into the recent history of every nation to assess who had been taking the penalties for them.

Some nations had not received penalties for some time, and some had different personnel on the pitch at different times, but the list below is our best guess from that research.

*There are two exceptions in the above graphic: Ciro Immobile and Sokol Cikalleshi are not in their nations’ squads for Euro 2024, but the rest are.

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🦵🏼 Free-kick Takers

Being on direct free-kicks can also help a player’s goalscoring chances.

However, only one direct free-kick goal was scored at Euro 2020, by Mikkel Damsgaard of Denmark.

Indeed, there have only been 24 direct free kick goals in the history of European Championship finals:

• 1964: Dezső Novák (Hungary 3-1 Denmark, 20/06/1964, third-place play-off)
• 1968: Angelo Domenghini (Italy 1-1 Yugoslavia, 08/06/1968, final)
• 1976: Dragan Džajić (Netherlands 3-2 Yugoslavia, aet,19/06/1976, third-place play-off)
• 1980: Antonín Panenka (Greece 1-3 Czechoslovakia, 14/06/1980, group stage)
• 1984: Michel Platini (France 3-2 Yugoslavia, 19/06/1984, group stage)
• 1984: Jean-François Domergue (France 3-2 Portugal, aet, 23/06/1984, semi-finals)
• 1984: Michel Platini (France 2-0 Spain, 27/06/1984, final)
• 1988: Rafael Gordillo (Denmark 2-3 Spain, 11/06/1988, group stage)
• 1992: Thomas Hassler (USSR 1-1 Germany, 12/06/1992, group stage)
• 1992: Thomas Hassler (Sweden 2-3 Germany, 21/06/1992, semi-finals)
• 1996: Hristo Stoichkov (France 3-1 Bulgaria, 18/06/1996, group stage)
• 2000: Frank de Boer (France 2-3 Netherlands, 21/06/1996, group stage)
• 2000: Zinédine Zidane (Spain 1-2 France, 25/06/1996, quarter-finals)
• 2004: Zinédine Zidane (France 2-1 England, 13/06/2004, group stage)
• 2004: Torsten Frings (Germany 1-1 Netherlands, 15/06/2004, group stage)
• 2004: Marek Heinz (Germany 1-2 Czech Republic, 23/06/2004 group stage)
• 2008: Michael Ballack (Austria 0-1 Germany, 16/06/2008, group stage)
• 2008: Daniele De Rossi (France 0-2 Italy, 17/06/2008, group stage)
• 2012: Andrea Pirlo (Italy 1-1 Croatia, 14/06/2012, group stage)
• 2016: Gareth Bale (Wales 2-1 Slovakia, 11/06/2016, group stage)
• 2016: Eric Dier (England 1-1 Russia, 11/06/2016, group stage)
• 2016: Gareth Bale (England 2-1 Wales, 16/06/2016, group stage)
• 2016: Balázs Dzsudzsák (Hungary 3-3 Portugal, 22/06/2016, group stage)
• 2020: Mikkel Damsgaard (England 2-1 Denmark, aet, 07/07/2021, semi-finals)

Team Free-kick Takers

Nevertheless, we have compiled a list of the likely free kick takers for each nation.

It can be much more variable who takes free kicks. There are many more factors, such as distance and angle, to consider as to who is the best taker for the scenario. This is without even regarding the pecking order in the team, and who is on the pitch when the free-kick is awarded.

In the list below, players with (L)  next to their name are left-footed options.

*Robert Skov is not in the Denmark squad, but the rest have made their countries’ lists.

There are some players in the list who are almost certain to be first in line for their country. Hakan Calhanoglu, Antoine Griezmann, and Dominik Szobozlai have almost complete control over the free kicks for their teams.

However, nations such as Italy, England, Croatia, and Germany, have used a variety of takers and it may depend on who is on the pitch and where the kick is as for who might take it.

* All odds displayed correctly at the time of publishing *

Written by an Andy verified content writer

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