The penalty shootout between England and Sweden at Euro 2025 will go down as one of the most dramatic in football history.
Of the 14 spot-kicks taken, only five were scored, with six saved and three missed for a conversion rate of just 35.7%.
A bizarre outlier? Not so much. At Euro 2025, penalties have been far from a guaranteed source of goals, with a tournament success rate of 58.5%.
Spain failed to score either of their two penalties against Switzerland on Friday, and Germany had one saved in normal time when they faced France, before another three went awry in a 14-penalty shootout that admittedly lacked the chaos of England v Sweden.
The success rate is the lowest at this stage of a women’s tournament in the past 15 years. In comparison, 84.4% of penalties were scored at 2015 World Cup.
Across the seven major women’s tournaments since 2011 and before Euro 2025, the success rate was 72.99% – slightly up on the 70.56% scored in men’s competitions since 2010.
So why are penalties now so much harder to score at major women’s tournaments? BBC Sport dug into the stats, asked the players and managers, and quizzed the experts to try to find an answer.