Some people may dread the prospect of a penalty shootout at Euro 2024, but I have relished it since I was a child.
Whenever any tournament reaches the knockout stage, I can’t help but get excited about the possibility of us seeing one. They are an amazing way to end a game.
If I know a shooting is happening somewhere in the world, I will always do my best to find it and watch it. Most of the time I don’t really care who wins or loses, I just like to see how they play out.
I love the drama, the emotion and the mind games that go into them, and I always want to see how it’s all handled and executed by the goalkeeper and the penalty taker.
I’ve been both, so I know what every aspect of the situation feels like with success and failure.
‘I’ve never had a penalty saved’
I took a penalty for Celtic in a shootout to decide the Scottish Cup semi-final against Aberdeen in April. I hit the post, but immediately made up for it with the save that got us through.
That was the first official penalty I scored since 2009. I had scored that time, for England against Sweden, in the semi-final of the European Under-21 Championship, when we won by sudden death.
But I missed the first one I scored, in 2005, for Shrewsbury Town, against Sheffield United, when I was 18 years old. I hit the post… and we lost, but I guess you could say I’ve never managed to save a penalty kick.
On all three occasions, however, I was one of the first five to run, because I have always put my name forward to run – I have not reluctantly moved up as 10th or 11th in line.
I also took a lot more in preseason games. I know they’re not that important, but I always wanted the coach to know that I felt confident, because I did.
Whenever I scored a penalty I always thought that if I executed what I planned it couldn’t be saved. Probably the best example of this is the one I took for Manchester City in a friendly with Rome in 2015.
As a goalkeeper, I know what’s possible when you’re in the game, in terms of what you can and can’t cover. With the right practice, I always thought I should be able to place it somewhere it couldn’t be reached.
When I got it, I just tried to get into a mode where I felt confident and comfortable standing on the ball. Even so, obviously you can still make mistakes, but I was happy with the result.
Borrower insight works both ways
From a purely goalkeeper’s point of view, I tried a few more. My first shootout for Manchester City was against Danish side FC Midtjylland, in 2008, in the qualifying phase for the old UEFA Cup.
It was a difficult game for the team, but I saved two penalties and it was a great night for me personally as a young goalkeeper who had just joined the team.
Any information about its perpetrators would have been quite limited back then – but nowadays I would know everyone’s penalty history.
This works both ways, because takers are well aware that they are being watched now and players don’t necessarily have just one way of doing things.
It becomes a psychological battle between the batsman and the keeper, and there is always a lot going on. Witness the repeated penalty Robert Lewandowski scored for Poland against France earlier this week.
This stuttering technique that Lewandowski uses in his preparation frustrates many fans, but it is especially difficult for a goalkeeper when facing someone who is confident enough to wait for a ‘tell’ from the goalkeeper and head the other way.
Even if they don’t commit, like French goalkeeper Mike Maignan, Lewandowski managed to get enough shots into the corner to make it impossible to save.
‘I put myself in a false state of mind’
The batsman is always the favourite, but as a keeper you have to revel in the fact that you are more than capable of misrepresenting him.
In fact, I got to the point where I put myself in a false state of mind.
I would put myself in a moment where someone was taking a penalty against me – also in a normal game – where I was totally convinced that I knew exactly what they were thinking, what the moment would be and exactly where they were going to score.
About 85 to 90 percent of the time I would be wrong, but that meant I was in a confident, comfortable state of mind with what I was doing, and that gave me the best possible chance of saving him.
Even with this mentality and all the information about hitters, goalkeepers still play against people who can do pretty much whatever they want.
The Panenka penalty that Alessandro Pirlo scored against me for Italy in the Euro 2012 quarter-finals showed that.
There’s a lot of talk about it and I thought it was an exceptional penalty, a moment of quality and class.
Obviously I would have loved to just stand there, lowering my chest and hitting him back, but he knew exactly what I was going to do.
Pirlo is a fluid player, who follows what he feels. I don’t even think he would know what he had done previously.
He had just orchestrated the entire game, but I also played well and was in a moment where it was difficult to beat.
I was very confident. His favorite penalty was the way I went, and I thought if I was going to save this, I was going to try hard.
So I did that, but Pirlo understood how excited I was. A handsome player like that understands the rhythm of football and simply puts it in the middle.
Penalties must be part of the plan
Like it or not, penalties will likely be part of the story of how this tournament is decided.
Greece in 2004 was the last team to win a European Championship without having to face penalties along the way.
They have to be part of every team’s plan, and you can practice and prepare for them a lot.
Ultimately, though, I’ve always felt that it’s the decisions you make on the day that count – as a taker and as a goalkeeper. Both are responsible for what they do – but only one of them comes out on top.
Joe Hart was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan in Berlin.
