After Spurs and Everton exited the UEFA Cup on Wednesday night, a number of press commentators in the UK press have blamed “England’s penalty curse”.

England’s failures in the dreaded shoot-outs are well documented. In what can only be described as an amazing run of statistics, the national team were dumped out of a major competition after extra time in Italia '90, Euro '96, France '98, Euro 2004 and last year's World Cup in Germany.

The last two defeats came against Portugal, which suggests there are some countries more equipped to deal with penalty shoot-outs.

'Penalty taking is an art which some players can perfect. This is clearly illustrated by Dimitar Berbatov, who struck the best penalty of the night in Holland'


But to brand the two UEFA Cup defeats as more English penalty woe is somewhat unfair since many of the players who took the penalties were foreign. Spurs and Everton missed two penalties each, one from the boot of an Englishman (Jermaine Jenas and Phil Jagielka), whilst two foreigners were also guilty of crucial misses (Pascal Chimbonda and Yakubu).

With so many Premier League teams made up largely of foreign players, how can the afflictions of the national team have converted to the top clubs sides as well?

Just from the two UEFA Cup shoot-outs, there are some lessons to be gleaned. Penalty taking is an art which some players can perfect. This is clearly illustrated by Dimitar Berbatov, who struck the best penalty of the night in Holland. The Bulgarian hitman appears to have a technique which guarantees success. He waits for the keeper to move before calmly sidefooting into the opposite corner to which the goalie dives. He may have copied this from another great penalty taker, Eric Cantona, who espoused this theory during his time at Manchester United.

The importance of a great goalkeeper is also crucial. PSV's Heurelho Gomes is a large man with a massive presence. His save from Jenas, which would have sent Spurs through, was brilliant. And the Brazilian, nicknamed “The Octopus,” showed how the antics of a goalie in a penalty shoot-out can have a big effect on the opposing team.

Similar to Bruce Grobbelaar’s “wobbly legs,” Gomes made a big play of trying to psyche out the Spurs players in between penalty kicks.

Some would argue that the victors in both shoot-outs last night came to the side with the best goalkeeper. Gomes showed over the two games that he is a better goalkeeper than Paul Robinson and Sebastian Frey also proved why he is one of the most highly-rated goalkeepers in Europe.

Frey’s save from Jagielka’s penalty was sensational. It is often claimed that goalies have nothing to lose in a shoot-out but the truth is they can make the difference.

But it isn’t all about the goalkeepers; after all, Fiorentina hit four superb penalties and sometimes it is impossible to tell which players will have the nerve to take the crucial kicks. After all, who would have bet that Didier Zokora or Darren Bent would take such accomplished penalties for Spurs?

England are not the only nation to struggle with this particular side of the game. The international sides of Spain and Holland also often bow out of major tournaments on penalties. Who could ever forget the Euro 2000 semi-final between Italy and Holland, where the Dutch missed two penalties in normal time and then three in the shoot-out?

There are also countries that seem to excel at penalties, the most obvious example being Germany. And, like in England, this translates to the club sides as well.

Schalke beat Porto in the Champions League in a penalty shoot-out last week despite the fact that three of the Schalke penalties were scored by non-German players from Brazil, Croatia and Turkey.

There is always a debate about the rights and wrongs of a penalty shoot-out. Some claim that they are a lottery, others that it is a discipline that is part of the game. But there is no denying that English teams struggle even though most of them have very few English players.

There is simply no clear solution for English sides - but on the evidence of last night this recurring nightmare will continue for some time to come.

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