Would PSG players have won the penalty shootout if they had chosen to let Liverpool shoot first? This is a question that can be asked just before this fateful moment. Do we take the lead immediately, or do we wait for our goalkeeper to give us a significant advantage with a save? On this subject, a study was conducted in 2021 by four researchers and published in the journal "Games and Economic Behavior." During this study, 207 penalty shootouts in 14 international football tournaments between July 2003 and August 2017 were analyzed. They found that "surprisingly," only 56% of captains decided to shoot first, while 44% sent their goalkeeper into the goal first. Ultimately, the study didn't find a greater likelihood of taking the first shot in a penalty shootout, as the winning rate for teams taking the first penalty is only around 51%. This makes Donnarumma's performance even more impressive.
Brief
Against Liverpool, it was PSG and Vitinha who took the first shot in the penalty shootout. / © Icon Sport