Admired and applauded by many, rejected and discussed by many others, the way to kick a penalty “poking it”, or rather, “a lo Panenka“, and to whom it was the Czechoslovakian Antonin Panenka himself who surprised the world with this way of executing at the 1976 Euro Cup, it keeps repeating day after day in the professional soccer from all over the planet.
That is why it deserved its section in 90Min and here we have it: next, we review the most memorable penalties in the history of football, by execution, but above all by context and significance.
7. Francesco Totti (Eurocopa Holanda-Bélgica 2000)
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If there is a player who had plenty of class and who could calmly chop it without losing his hair, that was Francesco Totti, Il Capitano, who for Italy against the Netherlands, where Edwin Van der Sar stopped, left a memorable delicatessen in the penalty shootout at the final the Euro 2000. Impressive.
6. Roberto Trotta (Clausura 2000 Tournament)
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Roberto Trotta and José Luis Chilavert were teammates in Vélez Sarsfield and were world champions together, in 1994. However, Trotta’s criticism of the people of Vélez, when he went to River, provoked the anger of both the Liniers public and his own Paraguayan archer, who treated him as a cuckold. When they faced each other, this happened. Unmissable and unforgettable.
5. Sergio Ramos (Euro Cup Poland-Ukraine 2012)
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You have to have a personality to be singled out as the person responsible for an elimination in the Champions semi-finals for your execution (Real Madrid lost to Bayern Munich), and then go with your team and kick in this way. You have to have “balls”, as the Spanish would say, to execute as Ramos did in the triumph of Spain against Portugal in the semifinal of the continental tournament. Then Fabregas would take care of the rest. Panenka has chosen him as the one who best executes the shot.
4. Andrea Pirlo (Euro Cup Poland-Ukraine 2012)
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Quarterfinals of Euro 2012. Italy and England equalized and had to decide their fate in the penalty shootout. There, Andrea Pirlo, a historic Italian midfielder, showed his class against goalkeeper Joe Hart. At that time, a Juventus player, Pirlo decided to chop the ball, a goal that helped Italy reach the next round and reach the final of the tournament. Class.
3. Antonín Panenka (Eurocopa 1976)
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“I wasn’t sure I was scoring one hundred percent. I was one thousand percent sure,” said Panenka, the pioneer in kicking penalties in this way, the first to dare to do so. He found that most goalkeepers chose a club on shots from eleven meters, so a subtle touch to the middle of the goal would leave them with no options. It was in the definition of the 1976 Eurocup, between his country Czechoslovakia and Federal Germany, before the mythical Sepp Maier. Historical.
2. Zinedine Zidane (2006 World Cup Final)
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Chop her at the end of a world, before the eyes of the whole world? That’s what Zidane did for France against Italy, leaving Buffon incredulous, to put the early 1-0. Then everything turned uphill for “Zizou” in his last game as a professional, with a header to Materazzi, expulsion and loss on penalties.
1. Sebastián Abreu (2010 World Cup Quarters)
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Quarter-finals of world South Africa 2010. The “Loco” Abreu stung almost all his penalties and many suspected that he would do it again, when luck winked at him and said “Here you have to define it yourself, become a hero.” The game against Ghana was already epic because, at the last minute of the game, Suárez had been sent off for avoiding the rival goal with his hand, and Gyan had wasted the penalty by executing the crossbar, to favor the penalty shootout, where the epic occurred .
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