20-07-2025
Why so many penalties are being missed at Euro 2025
An incredible nine penalties were missed in England's quarter-final shoot-out with Sweden. Some were saved, while some missed the target completely.
That game was not an outlier. Missing penalties has been a theme of Euro 2025.
Of the 41 spot-kicks taken at the tournament so far, only 24 have been scored, a conversion rate of only 58.5 per cent – and before Saturday night's shoot-out between France and Germany, it was as low as 48 per cent.
Spain missed two against Switzerland, with Mariona Caldentey firing wide before Alèxia Putellas's effort was saved. Ada Hegerberg, meanwhile, put two penalties wide in separate fixtures for Norway. Germany's Sjoeke Nüsken also had her spot-kick saved against France in normal time on Saturday before finding the net in the shoot-out.
A golden chance missed for Norway 🇳🇴
Ada Hegerberg misses her second penalty of the tournament. #WEuro2025
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) July 16, 2025
The low conversion rate is intriguing given players have had considerably greater success in previous tournaments. In Euro 2022, eight of the 10 penalties taken during 90 minutes were scored, a conversion rate of 80 per cent. There were no shoot-outs at that tournament.
The average was slightly lower at the 2023 World Cup. Of the 70 penalties taken during both 90 minutes and shoot-outs, 48 were scored, a conversion rate of 68.6 per cent.
The 2015 World Cup has the highest conversion rate of the past eight tournaments, with 84.4 per cent of penalties scored in both matches and shoot-outs, while Euro 2025 so far has the lowest percentage.
So what are some of the possible explanations for the significant drop this year?
Pressure takes toll in latter stages
Statistics show that conversion rates decrease after the quarter-final stage. At Euro 2017, seven of eight penalties taken during 90 minutes were scored while eight from nine during shoot-outs were converted. But once the two semi-final games and final were taken into account, the overall conversion rate for the tournament dropped to 73.1 per cent. In fact, that is the case for every tournament since 2011, which does not bode well for this Euros as it heads to the semi-final stage.
It is perhaps not surprising, given that the stakes increase further into the tournament. There is also the impact of the increased attention on and exposure of women's football.
Geir Jordet, a professor in football and psychology, and the author of Pressure – Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout, tells Telegraph Sport: 'Our research on penalties with men show that with increased pressure comes reduced shot performance.
'With the explosive interest in the women's game these past four to five years, these players are now asked to perform on behalf of their countries with a level of expectation and outside investment in the outcome that they may not have experienced at this level before.
'While Premier League players on the men's side are used to this type of interest every weekend, the women players are not, and it is possible that this makes it harder and that some of these players underperform as a result.'
Putellas, Caldentey and Hegerberg have all taken high-pressure penalties before. But it is interesting that all three missed against the host nation, Switzerland, who had the majority of fans in the stadium. Hegerberg also missed in Norway's quarter-final with Italy.
Goalkeepers improving
Poor penalties are often linked to good goalkeeping and Jordet believes the increased professionalism in the women's game has given goalkeepers an analytical edge.
Sweden's Jennifer Falk had information about England's penalty-takers on her water bottle, a technique Jordan Pickford has used in numerous shoot-outs for England's men's team.
Ann-Katrin Berger had similar on her bottle for Germany's shoot-out against France. Those notes said dive left for the decisive last penalty; she did and she saved, having pulled off another spectacular stop in extra-time.
England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton also referenced the importance of data, joking that she did not have any on Falk when the Sweden goalkeeper surprisingly stepped up – and missed – in the shoot-out.
There are undoubtedly greater resources available to female goalkeepers now than in 2011 and the standard of players in that position has increased significantly. There is also much more data and research available.
'In the England v Sweden shoot-out, the goalkeepers moved to the correct side more than 70 per cent of the time, indicating that they had successfully figured out the penalty-takers,' Jordet says. 'A correct guess will increase the chance of a save by 30 to 40 per cent.
'Under pressure, people – and penalty-takers – tend to fall back to what is known and many will then lean on the shots they are most comfortable with, making them predictable for goalkeepers.'
Players should consider flexible approach
While goalkeepers do their homework, a way for penalty-takers to combat this is to employ a more flexible goalkeeper-dependent technique. This is where they look at the goalkeeper moving to one side before the shot, and then roll the ball to the other side.
'Very few female penalty-takers actually use this technique,' Jordet says. 'None of the players in the England v Sweden shoot-out did so, and those goalkeepers were successful because they moved very early to a side, and hence could quite easily make their saves because the penalty-takers rigidly stuck to their pre-decided corner.
'However, Spain's Mariona Caldentey actually used the goalkeeper-dependent technique against Switzerland, looking at the goalkeeper as she moved towards the ball.
'The Swiss goalkeeper had definitely studied Caldentey because she came equipped with the antidote against this type of strategy by standing still for an extremely long time, forcing the forward to just go for a side – and the shot was not particularly strong.'
Not one, but two missed penalties 😬
It didn't matter in the end, but a couple of moments to forget for Spain!
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) July 18, 2025
It is interesting that the conversion rate at the men's Euro 2024 tournament was up by nearly 10 per cent from the 2022 World Cup and 17 per cent from Euro 2020.
That perhaps has to do with the increased use of the goalkeeper-independent technique. 'In the men's game, the best penalty- takers are now fully flexible and unpredictable,' says Jordet.
'Specialist penalty-takers such as Harry Kane and Robert Lewandowski alternate technique, sometimes goalkeeper-independent – pre-decided corner – and sometimes goalkeeper-dependent – react to goalkeeper. I expect we will see this also in the women's game going forward.'
