Monday 20 June 2016 06:22, UK
June 20th marks 40 years since Antonin Panenka stunned football with the audacity of his penalty to win the 1976 European Championships for Czechoslovakia.
Since then it's become a go-to penalty for the great and the good of world football with everyone from Lionel Messi to Andrea Pirlo attempting to repeat the feat.
Here we pick out 10 of the most memorable examples…
Gary Lineker
The headlines would have been lovely. Equalling Sir Bobby Charlton's England goalscoring record with a delightful dinked penalty against Brazil at Wembley. The reality was rather different. Lineker's effort lacked the deception or the deftness to confuse Carlos in the Brazil goal and the keeper pounced on the striker's tame shot.
Lineker subsequently failed to find the net against Finland as well as all three of England's games at Euro '92 - thus finding himself one goal shy of the record with his international career over. Curiously, it wasn't Lineker's last Panenka attempt - he successfully executed one for Grampus Eight in Japan - but he never did get that 49th England goal.
Francesco Totti
The Roma icon has utilised the Panenka with plenty of success over the years - although there have been some notable misses too. Indeed, so often does Totti opt for the chipped finish it's added to the confusion for goalkeepers who now not only have to consider which way to dive but whether they need to dive at all.
Perhaps his most high-profile penalty of this type came against the Netherlands in the semi-finals of Euro 2000. The Dutch had already missed twice in regulation time before going two down in the shootout. Totti, on as a substitute, revelled in their misery by outfoxing Edwin van der Sar from the spot and put Italy well on their way to the final.
Thierry Henry
Panenka himself picked out Henry as one of the finest exponents of his trademark penalty, citing the deception and elevation as key elements of the art form. The Frenchman's most famous effort came during a tight game against Newcastle in Arsenal's 2003/04 season - a campaign in which just about everything seemed to go right for the Gunners.
The score was 2-2 late on at Highbury so there was some pressure on the kick when Henry stepped up. However, he succeeded in sending Shay Given sprawling thanks to a quick run-up before checking his shot. The ball would have hit Given on the head had he stayed still. Instead, to the delight of the Arsenal fans, it found its way safely into the net.
Sebastian Abreu
A little sprinkling of villainous intent always helps add to the mystique surrounding a Panenka and the context of Abreu's effort against Ghana was delicious for Uruguay fans even while supporters around the world were left appalled. Their opponents would have become the first African team to reach a World Cup semi-final had Luis Suarez not handled the ball on the line late on.
Instead, Ghana missed the subsequent spot-kick and then fell behind in the shoot-out too. It was left to Abreu to administer the killing stroke and his decision to replicate Panenka could easily have been interpreted as mocking the Ghanaians. In truth, he had history for it having pulled off the Panenka against Brazil in the 2007 Copa America.
Andrea Pirlo
If ever a player was born to perfect the Panenka it was surely Pirlo. The archetypal precision-over-power merchant, his penalty against England in Italy's quarter-final shootout win at Euro 2012 was one of the iconic moments of the tournament. But it was more than a moment. It also transformed the momentum of the contest.
England were a goal up in the shootout and Ashley Young would've had the chance to put Roy Hodgson's side 3-1 up had Pirlo missed. Instead, with Joe Hart's tail up as he bounced around on the goal-line, Pirlo's assured kick seemed to spark doubts. England's next two men missed, Italy's next two scored and the Azzurri had won the tie. That's a powerful Panenka.
Helder Postiga
Pirlo's penalty was not the first time that England had fallen victim to a Panenka at the European Championship - Postiga's kick for Portugal played its part in eliminating Sven Goran Eriksson's side at Euro 2004. The game itself had been a cracker with substitute Postiga's confidence buoyed by his late equaliser in a game that eventually finished 2-2 after extra time.
With the scores level at three apiece in the shootout, the striker's delicate low effort was too good for David James. It required real chutzpah given the circumstances and it's tempting to think his header in normal time had precipitated it. The contrast with the next effort was stark as fellow substitute Darius Vassell saw his shot saved and Postiga had done the job for his team.
Lionel Messi
Messi has since done an homage to Johan Cruyff by passing to Luis Suarez from the penalty spot in a 6-1 win over Celta Vigo in February but he's also favoured the Panenka too. Given his record of recent misses it's no wonder that he's willing to mix things up but his dinked finish against Getafe in April 2015 was pretty much perfection.
The execution was the best I've ever seen.
Messi deceived Vicente Guaita for the first of his two goals in a 6-0 demolition of Getafe at the Nou Camp and the goal was so good that he even earned the praise of Panenka himself. "The execution was the best I've ever seen - not too powerful, central, good elevation," the Czech hero told radio station RAC1. "Technically the goal was impressive."
Zinedine Zidane
If there was one thing that stops Messi's effort being truly top drawer it's that the stakes were not at their highest. Few could say that of Zidane's attempt. He remains the only man to try a Panenka in a World Cup final. It wasn't even in the shootout. And it was against Gianluigi Buffon, arguably the best goalkeeper in the world.
Zidane's penalty found its way over the line off the underside of the bar, seeming to sum up the fine line between success and failure that comes with the Panenka. It also summed up Zidane's match - the last of his career - given that he wasn't around for a repeat in the shootout. He was sent off for a headbutt on Marco Materazzi and France duly lost - on penalties.
Alexis Sanchez
Zidane's effort must lose marks for failing to actually win the tournament for his side. That's what sets Sanchez apart as the truest homage to Panenka - his shootout spot-kick also won a continental competition for his country. Sanchez was the hero for Chile as they beat Argentina in the final of the Copa America in 2015.
With an expectant home crowd dreaming of glory, it required real calm in the eye of the storm in order to reach into the golf bag for a club and pull out the Panenka. But Sanchez decided a wedged finish would do the job and promptly beat Sergio Romero from the spot before racing off into the night with history having been made.
Antonin Panenka
There's nothing quite like being first. The difference between imitation and innovation is everything. What's particularly striking about Panenka's own effort in '76 is that the run up was so quick - a determined, shuffling approach that seemed to suggest the ball would be smashed at speed. West Germany's Sepp Maier certainly seemed to think so.
The great goalkeeper duly dived to his left, allowing the midfielder to dink the ball down the middle and win the Euros for Czechoslovakia. Perhaps surprisingly given the goal's fame, it wasn't the first time Panenka had tried it - he scored more than 30 goals that way in his career. Many more have tried to make it their own since. But it seems the finish will forever be known as the Panenka.
