Jogi's boys have been waiting for this tip: A professor at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences advises penalty takers to aim at the center of the goal more often.
The economic theorist Christian Rieck and his team evaluated 402 penalties from the Bundesliga.
Using game theory, he calculated the best tactics for the shooter and goalkeeper and compared the results with actual behavior.
According to the analysis, goalkeepers in particular behave almost optimally unpredictably: 54 percent of them jump on the shooter's strongest side, 39 percent on the other side.
Theoretically, the greatest success is promised by the so-called Nash equilibrium: 52 percent of the goalkeeper would have to jump to the shooter's preferred side, 42 percent of the shooter would have to aim at his favorite corner.
In reality, every second penalty kick, the shooter chooses whichever side they want.
Rieck suspects why the middle is usually avoided: If the goalkeeper holds the ball there, it is particularly embarrassing.
More information on game theory