Shoot-out wins have nothing to do with luck

For Petr Cech, it was a case of when in Germany do what the Germans do.

There’s a reason why German sides never lose penalty shoot-outs, up until last Saturday night anyway. They prepare for that scenario better than anyone else, whether taking or stopping them.

Just before their 2006 World Cup shoot out against Argentina, Jens Lehmann was handed a piece of paper by the team’s goalkeeping coach Andreas Kopke, outlining where Argentina’s top seven penalty-takers were most likely to place their spot-kicks. Lehmann’s old Schalke coach Huub Stevens had a database of over 13,000 penalties taken all around Europe. Lehmann used that archive before the 1997 Uefa Cup final against Inter Milan and phoned Stevens in the lead up to the Argentina game.