The 2006 World Cup final between Italy and France was decided by a penalty shootout. That was one of the most important moments in the career of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, a goalkeeper who did not like to study opponents but often reflected through his intuition.
Buffon faced Trezeguet, two Juventus teammates. The French striker chose a difficult shot when he shot into the upper left corner. However, the ball went over the bar and Buffon was the winner.
In Cardiff ( xu xu) this weekend, Buffon may have to enter a penalty shootout in the UEFA Champions League final. Vice may not be enough for him as more and more wins and losses of this player are decided by science.
Ignacio Palacios Huerta is a Spanish economist. He has spent years researching data on thousands of penalty kicks. Studies have shown that goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar often puts his player to the right in these fateful kicks.
In the UCL final between Man United and Chelsea in 2007 2008 in Moscow (Russia), then-Blues coach Avram Grant received help from Ignacio's research. Chelsea players have thoroughly grasped the truth about Van der Sar in the penalty shootout.
In the first 5 matches, the blue players shot to the left hand of the Man United goalkeeper. In the 5th shot, John Terry did the right thing and if he hadn't slipped, the victory would have belonged to his team.
In the 7th round, when Man United was leading 6-5, Van der Sar seemed to have understood the opponent's intentions, so his left hand pointed to the top corner of the left goal when Nicolas Anelka was in front of the ball. Instead of playing in the direction of his 6 teammates before, Anelka played towards the right of Van der Sar at a moderate height. Of course, this striker had to pay the price for his decision.
Two years later, the Dutch Open met the Spanish Open in the 2010 World Cup final in Johannesburg (South Africa). Ignacio, from the Basque country, an autonomous community in Spain, was quite happy to plot to face the team from the land of the goats.
Dutch national team goalkeeper Ruud Hesps goalkeeper has received a report from Ignacio about Torress 11m shots or Cascascascas reflections. When the match was in the extra time of a strong win (rate 0-0), Ruud Hesp started reading this document. However, it was not applied in practice when Iniesta scored the only goal for the Spanish national team.
The 2011 2012 UCL final was a clash between Chelsea and Bayern Munich. Before this match, Chelsea no longer need to call up someone like Ignacio. However, Petr Cech watched a 2-hour disc of all Bayern Munich's penalty kicks in five years. He also received detailed specifications about the opponent.
In that decisive match, Petr Cech predicted that he would hit the target of all 6 11m shots that the "Gray Tigers" took (1 in the match, 5 in the penalty shootout). Thanks to that, Chelsea won the first UCL championship in history.
In the studies of economist Ignacio above, the first team will have a 60% chance of winning. Part of the reason is that the teams playing later will face psychological pressure to balance the gap.
In the UCL final a year ago against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid won the penny-throwing but chose to play later. Everyone knows that the championship last season belonged to the "White Vultures". Coach Simeone's team chose this because they won against PSV Eindhoven also in the 2015 UCL 2016 season when the Dutch team played first.
One of the captains who made such mistakes was goalkeeper Buffon. He let the Spanish national team take the lead in the quarter-final of EURO 2008. The Italian team then lost, while their opponent won the tournament.
Returning to the penalty shootout in the Milan final in 2016, Real Madrid players have already known the habit of goalkeeper Jan Oblak. Atletico Madrid's goalkeeper always moves in the direction of being hit by people. This will help him move faster. However, the opponent could well know what he would do.
Four of the players who fired 11m kicks for Real Madrid slowed down, waiting for Oblak to move and then gently moved the ball into the other corner. Cristiano Ronaldo's decisive kick brought them the championship.
In the upcoming final, Juventus must put their faith in Buffon. The 39-year-old has certainly grasped how preparation plays a role in penalty kicks. On the other hand, Real Madrid will also analyze how Buffon have faced such kicks in the past.
