How to win a World Cup penalty shootout

By Emlyn Begley BBC Sport journalist Published 2 hours ago The World Cup is entering the knockout stages - which means penalty shootouts are back. The 2022 tournament had a record five shootouts - and with an extra round in 2026, the last 32, there is a good chance that gets broken again. So what have we learned from the 320 spot-kicks taken across 35 penalty shootouts since 1982? BBC Sport and Opta have taken a look to see what we can expect this summer. An Englishman's guide to penalty shootouts Published 2 July 2018 Which countries fare best and worst? England had missed more World Cup shootout penalties than any other nation - eight - until Spain took the unwanted crown in 2022. La Roja missed all three kicks in the last 16 against Morocco to take their total to nine. Spain have now lost four shootouts (out of five), which takes them past several countries on three including England. The most successful country is, by some margin, Argentina - who have won six of their seven including in the final in Qatar. Germany (who have scored 17 out of 18 kicks) and Croatia both won an impressive four out of four, while Japan, Mexico and Romania have lost two out of two. The countries to score every kick are Belgium, South Korea and Paraguay (five out of five each) and only Switzerland (zero out of three) have missed all theirs. Who are the individual shootout kings? Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Lionel Messi took seven penalties at the 2022 World Cup - five during games and two in shootouts - missing one Only two players have scored penalties in three different World Cup penalty shootouts before - Argentina's Lionel Messi and Croatia's Luka Modric - who both have a 100% success rate. One of Messi's came in the 2022 final against France. Some 23 players netted two out of two, while Italy's Roberto Baggio scored two out of three... but the one he missed was the crucial kick in the 1994 final. There must be something in the water in Zadar because Modric and two of the four goalkeepers to save the most World Cup shootout penalties are from Croatia's fifth largest city. Danijel Subasic (all in 2018) and Dominik Livakovic (all in 2022) have both saved four spot-kicks in World Cup shootouts (from 10 and eight faced respectively). West Germany's Harald Schumacher (faced nine) and Argentina's Sergio Goycochea (faced 10) have also saved four. Subasic and Livakovic are two of the only keepers, along with Portugal's Ricardo, to save three in one shootout. Ricardo has the highest percentage save record, with 75%, having only faced four spot-kicks. It's not all about saves - with Argentina's Emiliano Martinez only stopping one penalty against France in the 2022 final, but some of his mind games seemed to put French players off . Going central is a bad idea Players who pick a side have a better chance of scoring than those who go down the middle - whether that is a Panenka, rolling a kick along the floor or just hitting it as hard as you can and hoping. Of