France's penalty shootout obsession

The new World Cup history records three penalty shootout finals in 1994, 2006 and 2022. In which, France lost two matches, to Italy in 2006 and Argentina 2022. In the 1994 World Cup final, Brazil took the penalty. saved Italy 3-2.

France also lost all four penalty shootouts in the semi-finals onwards at major tournaments such as the World Cup and the Euro. In addition to the two finals mentioned above, they also lost in the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup to West Germany and Euro 1996 to the Czech Republic with such a scenario.

France have only had good penalties in the quarter-finals, when they won all three matches against Brazil in the 1986 World Cup, the Netherlands in Euro 1996 and Italy at the 1998 World Cup.

The five players who failed to enter the penalty shootout that caused France to lose the World Cup were Didier Six, Maxime Bossis, David Trezeguet, Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni. What they have in common is that they are all under 30 when they fail.

In the final of the World Cup 2022 at Lusail Stadium on the evening of December 18, Coman shot to the lower left corner lacking force and accuracy, being pushed by goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. It was Tchouameni's turn to shoot, Martinez deliberately threw the ball away so that the midfielder had to run to pick up the ball and put it in the 11m mark. The 22-year-old midfielder smirked at Martinez's action, but he missed the post when the Argentina goalkeeper guessed in the right direction.

In major tournaments, all 14 of the opponent's last penalty shoot-outs against France were successful. In 2006, the Italian player scored all five times in the penalty shootout against goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. In the 1/8 round of Euro 2021, five Swiss players also successfully took penalties to eliminate France. On the Lusail field, in turn, Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Leandro Paredes and Gonzalo Montiel successfully kicked out to help Argentina dethrone France. The last player to fail a penalty shootout against France was Luigi Di Biagio of Italy in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

Goalkeeper Lloris has faced 28 penalties in his France career, and he has only blocked four, a rate of 14%. Barthez's percentage is slightly higher, at 20%. The success rate of goalkeeper Martinez before the penalty for Argentina is up to 50%. According to Instat statistics, the probability of a goalkeeper blocking a penalty is 21.28%.