Who Are The World Cup Penalty Kings?
Two World Cup nations are 8 from 8 in penalty shootouts
Did you know there have been 35 penalty shootouts in World Cup history, with the first of them landing four years after FIFA introduced shootouts as a knockout-stage tiebreaker? Or that two nations have won every shootout they’ve ever been involved in (eight wins between them, from eight tries)? Or that Spain - the side with the worst record at the tournament - failed to convert a single penalty against Morocco in their 2022 round-of-16 exit?
Well, you’re in the right place. World Cup penalty shootouts are the one part of the tournament where the term “lottery” gets used most often, but where the historical record actually carries some structural form.
The 35 shootouts since 1982
The first World Cup penalty shootout came at Spain ‘82, when West Germany beat France 5-4 in the semi-final after a 3-3 extra-time draw. There have been 34 more since.
Four tournaments have produced four shootouts each: 1990, 2006, 2014, 2018. The 2022 World Cup beat them all with five, the most in any single edition; one of those five was the final between France and Argentina that Argentina won on penalties. Three World Cup finals in total have gone to a shootout: 1994 (Brazil beat Italy), 2006 (Italy beat France), 2022 (Argentina beat France).
The Penalty Kings
Two countries have won every shootout they have ever been involved in at the World Cup. Both are at the 2026 tournament.
**Germany.** Four shootouts, four wins. The 1982 semi-final against France started the run; Mexico (1986 quarter-final), England (1990 semi-final) and Argentina (2006 quarter-final) followed. Every German shootout has come at the quarter-final or semi-final stage of a knockout bracket.
**Croatia.** Four shootouts, four wins, all across the last two tournaments. In 2018 they beat Denmark in the round of 16 and Russia in the quarter-finals on the run to the final. In 2022 they beat Japan in the round of 16 and Brazil in the quarter-finals on the run to the third-place play-off.
The Croatian record carries through to 2026 with the same core. Luka Modrić has been on the pitch for all four Croatian shootouts and has scored every penalty he has taken (three of three, all as Croatia’s third taker, the rotation slot Croatia has used in each of their last three tournaments). Goalkeeper Dominik Livaković saved three Japanese penalties in the 2022 round-of-16 shootout and four across the 2022 tournament total, equalling the record for saves by a goalkeeper in a single World Cup edition. Both are confirmed for 2026.
The Penalty Clowns
Spain have been involved in five World Cup penalty shootouts and won just one. The four losses are the worst record at the tournament.
The 2022 round-of-16 loss to Morocco was the worst of the lot. Spain failed to convert a single penalty in a 3-0 defeat, becoming only the second team in World Cup history to fail to score in a shootout (after Switzerland against Ukraine in 2006). Yassine Bounou kept a clean sheet across all three Spanish attempts, becoming the second goalkeeper in World Cup history to do so in a full shootout.
Spain are at the 2026 tournament. The 1-from-5 reputation comes with them.
What the 35 shootouts tell you about the maths
A few patterns hold across the dataset.
Conversion drops under shootout pressure. World Cup penalties in normal time and extra time convert at 79.1%. World Cup penalties in shootouts convert at 69.4%. The shootout context costs around 10 percentage points of conversion against the in-game baseline.
The first three takers are the safe ones. The first three penalties in a shootout convert at 71%+ across the historical record. The fourth drops to 64.2%. The fifth lifts back to 66.7%. The eighth penalty, well into the back-half of the rotation and often a first-team player shooting from a position they don’t usually take from, is the one most likely to be missed at 59.4% conversion.
Top-third placement is unsaved. None of the 39 World Cup shootout penalties placed in the top third of the goal have ever been saved. They have been missed (14 World Cup shootout penalties have either hit or cleared the crossbar across the full dataset, including Roberto Baggio’s famous 1994 final miss), but no goalkeeper has reached one in. Bottom-corner placement is the most common at 23.9% of all shootout attempts but converts at a lower rate.
The coin toss is 50/50. 17 of the 35 shootouts have been won by the team going first; 18 have been won by the team going second. The popular notion that going first is an advantage doesn’t hold across the full record.
The 2026 penalty shootout watch
Six nations at the 2026 tournament carry a notable shootout record:
- Germany (4 from 4) and **Croatia (4 from 4):** the two unbeaten records.
- Argentina (6 from 7): most shootout wins of any nation. Defending champions; the only Argentine loss came against Germany in the 2006 quarter-final.
- Spain (1 from 5): worst record at the tournament.
- England (1 from 4): three losses (West Germany 1990 SF, Argentina 1998 R16, Portugal 2006 QF) before the 4-3 win over Colombia in the 2018 R16.
- France (1 from 4): their last two shootouts have both been World Cup final losses, to Italy in 2006 and Argentina in 2022.
What’s covered in the full World Cup Briefing
The is World Cup Betting Guide covers the structural framework for knockout-stage trading, including the penalty shootout decision tree for live trading including how the country-by-country base rates feed into the in-play decision.
Inside:
· The full 35-shootout country base rates for every nation at the 2026 tournament
· The penalty shootout decision tree for live in-play trading
· The bracket-path each-way value angle that uses the country shootout records as an input
· The bankroll structure for the knockout-stage trading window
The World Cup Briefing is built specifically for the 2026 tournament.
