THE KICK OF DEATH.

It could have been the English and we would have been on the edge of our seats or behind the sofa. The Germans and the Italians created Euro history last night as neither team wanted to close off the game.

The penalty kick was "invented" by William McCrum living in Milford, County Armagh in 1890. It was eventually introduced to the International Football Board and the FA game in 1891. It was regarded by many, mainly the Corinthians, as unecessary as "gentleman would never deliberately commit a foul". Nevertheless, the "kick of death", as it was known, was taken from any point along a line drawn 12 yards out before penalty areas were used. Airdrieonians scored the first EVER penalty at Broomfield Park in 1891. In September that same year, Billy Heath popped in the first ever Football League penalty for Wolves against Accrington.

Prior to the decision to make penalties the last resort for deciding a drawn match in cup ties (even after extra time) was a replay. If that failed to separate teams, the tie was decided by a toss of a coin.

In a 1968 European Championships semi-final in Naples on June 5th, Italy and the USSR tossed as coin after a drawn match and Italy went through.

In the 1968 Oympics Israel lost their quarter-final to Bulgaria "by lots" after a 1-1 drawn. Israeli Yosef Dagan suggested the shootout after seeing his team lose in an unsatisfactory way! His idea went to FIFA and Bulgaria went on to lose the final.

In England 1970 the first penalty shoot out was at Boothberry Park between Hull City and Manchester United in the semi-final of the Watney Cup. George Best scored the first penalty and Dennis Law was the first player to miss a spot kick.

The first European Cup Wnners Cup penalty shootout was when  Aberdeen lost their tie 5-4 to Honved in September 1970. The first shootout in the European Cup was in November 1970 when Everton beat Borussia Munchengladbach 4-3 to continue in the tournament.

The first penalty shoot out in the World Cup was in 1977 in the African Group Qualifying rounds, when Tunisia beat Morocco. In the World Cup Finals 1982, the first shootout win was West Germany beat France in the semi-final.

In 1988 the Argentinian Championship was decided by Argenios Juniors beating Racing Club 20-19 after 44 penalties.

The largest penalty win in England was by Brockenhurst over Andover in the Hampshire Senior Cup in October 2013, winning 17-16 after 44 penalties. The Nambian Cup saw KK Palace beat Civics 17-16 after 48 kicks and in the English professional game, in December 2012 Bradford City had the most consecutive penalty shootout wins with 9 victories since 2009, including a famous win over Arsenal.

Here are a few clever pens (one of them I'm not convinced by-what's so good about it!) and the Panenka features quite a few times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUtHlpt4Of0
and then there is the Panenka:
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/panenka-penalty.html