July 08, 2021
14:43
Whether it is Italy or England, the winner of the Euro will owe part of his title to the luck factor, hear: penalties rather than the game.
England and Italy will have won the right to play in the Euro final not because of their superiority over their opponents in half, but for penalty stories. Shots on goal for the Italians, a disputed foul on Stirling for the English. Fans of beautiful game may regret it while noting that basically, a good part of the matches of this 2021 edition will have resulted in the same outcome: a forced decision on luck or exhaustion (overtime).
Three matches out of the 14 scheduled for the knockout phase (from the round of 16) ended with a shoot to the net. The unfortunate victims of these variations of the coin toss from the beginning of the 20th century are the Spaniards, the Swiss and the French. Spain is a special case since she won in the quarter this way, before failing in the half at the same “post-120 minutes” stage: lucky, then cheeky... Which proves at least one thing: the luck factor does not add up to loyalty, which is all in all reassuring.
More amazing, seven of the 14 matches ended in a perfect tie at the end of the 90 minutes initials. One in two games went to extra time. And four of the seven extended matches gave birth to a winner by exhaustion of the adversary, shall we say (example: the Croats, almost liquefied against the Spaniards in eighth). The sign that the different teams were standing very closely, certainly. But maybe also a clue that the rules of the game are starting to date. Despite the (partial) use of VAR, the regulatory terrain offered to teams no longer allows enough variety and inventions for them to arrive to stand out.
The 2014 and 2018 editions of the World Cup as well as this new Euro show that the penalty shootout problem is becoming endemic
Okay, the phenomenon is not entirely new; previous editions of the World Cup have already encountered the same obstacle. In the knockout phase, four editions of the Global, the last two of which recorded 4 out of 16 matches ended with penalties (and one in three matches in 1982). But the 2014 and 2018 editions of the World Cup as well as this new Euro show that the problem is becoming endemic. Which track should be activated to try to reduce it? We see one: soften the offside rules…
