The star of the Moroccan national team, Ashraf Hakimi, drew attention to the last penalty kick that he executed and scored against Unai Simon, which qualified Morocco for the quarter-finals at the expense of Spain, due to the method of its execution, which is famous for "Panenka".

In addition to Hakimi, a group of players choose this "display" method to implement the penalties they get, instead of shooting them in a normal direct manner, and many fans often hear this phrase (Panenka), but they do not know its meaning or the story behind it.

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The first Panenka

To know the story of the "Panenka" method, we must go back to 1976, exactly during the final match of the European Nations Cup that brought together the Czechoslovak national team with the West Germany national team, where the first penalty kick was scored in this way.

As for the reason for the name, it is due to the owner of the shot, who bore the name “Anthony Panenka,” the former Czechoslovakia national team star.

According to the French newspaper Le Monde, instead of "Anthony" hitting the ball in the usual way that the players used to implement, he surprised everyone at the time in this "strange" way, and he did not know at the time that it would turn into a trademark registered in his name.

By coincidence, his shot turned into a historic goal against the famous German goalkeeper Sepp Meyer, who threw his body to the far left while his eyes kept watching a curved ball as it entered his net calmly and confidently.

At first, the player deceives the goalkeeper that he will shoot hard, by moving his body and foot, but when he feels that the goalkeeper will go to a certain angle, he will shoot it as calmly as possible in the middle and in a curved manner.

Panenka risks

Despite its aesthetic, which has tempted many stars to imitate it, such as Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr., Ronaldo and Zidane, this method involves a great risk, because as soon as the goalkeeper thinks about staying in the middle, he will catch it easily, and it may attract harsh criticism from the fans, It might also be ridiculous.

And this is indeed what happened on many occasions, as many players found themselves in an embarrassing situation as they put an easy and weak ball in the hands of the goalkeeper, as happened with the Venezuelan national team player Luis Regala in 2016, in a previous confrontation against Argentina.

The history of football witnesses many similar balls and goals, but fans of the round remember in particular the goal scored by French legend Zinedine Zidane against Italy, in the 2006 World Cup final in Germany.

It wasn't by chance

In a previous statement to the UEFA website, reported by the French newspaper, Panenka revealed the details of his choice of this method in that famous match.

As the famous star revealed that he was training with his companion, goalkeeper Evo Victor, to implement penalty kicks, then he quickly had the idea of ​​kicking the ball in the middle of the goal quietly, as it is very difficult for the goalkeeper to return to the middle as he “flies” towards the far right or the far left.

In another statement to the British newspaper "The Independent", Panenka said that he trained on the kick for two full years before venturing out to implement it in that decisive match.

But in the event that he had failed to register it, the speaker himself considered that this could have permanently removed him from football, and he would have returned to practicing his previous profession as a simple worker in a factory.

Therefore, our star believes that this kick not only contributed to crowning his country with the only European title in its history, but also changed his life forever.