Curse of the eighth penalty: World Cup shootouts by numbers

Introduced by Fifa for the 1982 tournament in Spain to replace the policy of replaying a drawn game, the first saw – you guessed it – West Germany emerge victorious against France

LOTTERY?: Brazil's Marquinhos shoots from the penalty spot during the penalty shootout at the World Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Croatia and Brazil, at the Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan, Qatar. Pic: AP Photo/Martin Meissner

According to Maxime Bossis, it was an error that would never have been made these days. 

“No one told me he always dived on the same side. It was another world,” said the former France defender in an interview in July. “Today a coach or a player would have come to tell me: ‘Watch out, he always dives to his right!”