Euro 2025 Penalty Misses: Are spot-kicks cursed? Spain miss two more during win over Switzerland in quarter-finals

It continues a bizarre trend at this summer’s tournament of penalties being missed more than usual.

After Spain’s first penalty miss, where Mariona Caldentey sent her spot-kick wide, Opta pointed out that only 50 per cent of penalties taken at the tournament have been scored, including in shootouts.

That statistic was extended to 12 out of 25 penalties being missed after Alexia Putellas later sent her penalty straight at Swiss goalkeeper Livia Peng.

Penalties these days have evolved into a game of data and careful preparation, and long has the myth of the lottery been dispelled. But the unpredictability and the pressure on players is still there.

Recent seasons have seen officials crack down on goalkeepers encroaching on the penalty taker and moving early.

The fact that goalkeepers at the tournament seem to be moving earlier than usual may provide one reason for why so many penalties are being saved or missed.

Speaking after the game between Spain and Switzerland, former England centre-back Steph Houghton touched on the fact that keepers are moving early.

“It has been interesting because the goalkeepers have been going really early,” Houghton said.

“I think you take last night’s penalty shootout, and generally the goalkeepers are going a little bit earlier. In that pressurised moment there is a lot going on.

“But I think with players like Mariona Caldentey and Alexia Putellas, they’re experienced players and have a lot of quality. So I don’t know what’s going on with penalties.”

Former England international and current Bristol City coach Anita Asante was beside Houghton, and said: “You expect Caldenty to step up and score.

“We’ve seen her score a number of penalties domestically for Arsenal, and she drags it wide.

“Actually, if you look at the goalkeeper, her body language is half inching to go to her right-hand side, and you think could they just wait a split second longer? Steph, myself, and Nikita were just like what’s going on?”

Even in today’s landscape where opposition tactics and penalty routines are analysed and scrutinised, luck, pressure, and other tangibles are still just as prevalent in penalty shootouts.

After England’s shootout with Sweden, Beth Mead admitted that sometimes it “doesn’t go to plan”.

“I think we’re all frustrated in the sense that we had our system, we’ve practised them every day, we’ve got our routines, and sometimes it doesn’t go to plan,” she said.