Ajax-Panathinaikos is the record match, the Dutch celebrate after 34 penalties – Football

In the midst of the Ferragosto toast, you might have missed the record-breaking game. The Ajax by Francesco Farioli flies to play-offs in the Europa League after beating the Panathinaikos on penalties. Not just any penalty kicks. Because the decisive penalty Anton Gaaei it was the number 34 in the series. The final result? 13-12.

A record series

At the Amsterdam Arena, an absolute record was recorded: the penalty shootout between Ajax and Panathinaikos (17 each) was the longest in the history of UEFA competitions. After the 1-0 victory in Athens, Farioli’s team had to defend the result at home, but Tete’s goal at the end sent the game to extra time and then to penalties. Daniel Mancini’s immediate miss from eleven meters was about to condemn Panathinaikos, but Brian Brobbey missed Ajax’s fifth penalty, which would have guaranteed qualification. The game went on and the goalkeepers also scored, the forty-year-old Dutchman Remko Pasveer and the Polish former Fiorentina player Bartlomiej Dragowski.

The primacy in an Israeli match

The hosts fail to take advantage of three more match points: once again, the mistake by Brobbeywho kicks into the stands. The fifth chance of victory is the good one: Gaaei doesn’t miss and gives Ajax the passage to the next round. However, it is not a world record. That belongs to a third division Israeli match last May, when Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv have kicked 56 penalties in total. Remaining in Europe, the previous record dates back to the first qualifying round of the Conference League in 2023, when in Belfast the G?ira United of Malta and the hosts of the Glentoran They scored the first 27 shots (14 for G?ira, 13 for Glentoran) before G?ira goalkeeper David Cassar saved the 28th from Leon Boyd (one of six players who ended up taking two).

photo ">

The precedents

Other memorable results include the 22 Penalties in the Europa League Final won by Villarreal against Manchester United in 2021, or the 24th Rio Ave-Milan 2020when the Rossoneri secured a place in the Europa League group stage. But what was the shortest sequence? We need to go back a few steps, to 1986, when Steaua Bucharest beat Barcelona 2-0 in the Champions Cup final, with Helmut Duckadam saving the four penalties taken by the Spaniards.