Aad Mansveld >> sunday july 11 - 22:12

The curse of an early 1-0 . 1974 we were 1-0 up. Germsny did not touch the ball. Itsliabs always keep their mind cool at penalties. We lost to them at home in 2000 semi final. 

davo >> sunday july 11 - 22:31

What a terrible decision to put Saka in to take the decisive penalty. Grealish, Sterling or Henderson should have stepped up and taken the responsibility.

Dragontao >> sunday july 11 - 22:34, Edited sunday july 11 - 22:34

I said both Rashford and Sancho would miss having been brought on specifically for penalties.

Sterling was greedy. No end product. Fell over

Arguably Jorginho could have had a red card but the best team won. No real complaints.

Good bye >> sunday july 11 - 22:51

Congratulations to Italy for winning Euro 2020

Lee >> sunday july 11 - 22:53

Shouldn't have sat back in the 2nd half - needed to keep Italy on the back foot.

Rule # 1 in penalties: hit the fuck**g target. If the keeper saves it then so be it.

Another failure to add to the already long list.

Numpty >> sunday july 11 - 22:59

They were the dominant team in the 1st half and should have buried them when they had the chance. 

davo >> monday july 12 - 01:08

I blame Southgate. He should have trained Rashford in Penalty Specialist..

Stephen >> monday july 12 - 08:01

Lol @Davo. It only takes a few days in a high level football academy too :)

Numpty >> monday july 12 - 08:30, Edited monday july 12 - 08:33

Blaming the wrong guy though. That was Solskjær's responsibility. He prefers Super Sub. 

@Davo's spot on about Saka too. At his age that miss will haunt him for the rest of his career. 

Aad Mansveld >> monday july 12 - 08:36

Well i am prepared to talke over Southgates job in real life too. 

I will ask all clubmanagers to train their players as penalty specialist

Numpty >> monday july 12 - 09:23

It's worth applying @Aad.

There was some story a few years ago about a guy who got the job as manager of a team in Azerbaijan purely on the strength of his experience of playing Football Manager.

davo >> monday july 12 - 09:53

@Numpty very true. OGS is to blame. Just another reason to hate M*n Utd.

Numpty >> monday july 12 - 10:37, Edited monday july 12 - 10:38

I've been looking at some stats on penalties. Personally, I've always thought that aiming for the bottom corners was the best option and that's what I did when I was playing. 

This is a summary of what the stats shows:

• The penalty conversion rate is around 75%.
• The best place to aim is straight down the middle. This has a high chance of success because the professional keepers almost always dive to the side and you can't miss. 
• The second best place to aim is in the bottom corners. 
• Aiming high into the top 1/3 - and probably with power - has the highest success rate, but only when it's on target.
• But aiming high into the top 1/3 has a high miss rate, so not the best choice.
• Striking with around 3/4 power is the best option. 
• Using maximum power is rarely saved but has a high miss rate. 
• Picking the spot with more accuracy and less power - around 50% - rarely misses but has a high rate of being saved. 

So the best choice seems to be with around 3/4 power and either straight down the middle or in the bottom corners.

Emanuele >> monday july 12 - 18:36

Italy dominated the field. Deserved victory.

Sterling can only play the Olympics with diving: D

Emanuele >> monday july 12 - 18:39

No British fans remained at the stadium to attend the awards ceremony. You have to know lose