One thing to note about a football game is that there will definitely be a winner at the end of the game, although the game may still end up in draw if it is a league game or group stage match but there are some instance whereby there must be a winner in a particular game.
In most cases, when the game proceed to knockout stage starting from the round of 16 to the final stage of the competition, there must be a winner here to proceed to the next stage unlike a league matches where it doesn't matter if you draw all the games.
Now, most of the time, when a particular competition proceed to knockout stage, the tempo of the game is always different from what we always experience in the beginning of the tournament, at this, you can still be the favourite side to proceed and still end up crashing out because most teams that really know they are not that strong will always try to force the game to a penalty shootout.
After playing the whole 120 minutes, both teams will have to select their best five players which they know can really score for them leaving the remaining 5 players excluding the goalkeeper on the line. This is always a crucial stage because it is the final option to decide the game, that is the winner and the loser.
Now this is where the question comes in which is what will happen if there is a tie in the penalty shootout just like it always happen during the 90 minutes of play. Although it is very rare at times but it is something that is possible to occur meaning the first five chosen players all score from the spot, then after the remaining five players all score as well, the goal keepers may also step up and if both score again, what do you think will happen?
The answer is not really far anyway, the shootout will go to what is know as sudden death meaning the shootout will continue until a player finally lose it. I can still remember the game between Nigeria and Holland U21 in 2005 when the penalty shootout ended 10-9 in favour of the Nigeria team. Nobody wants to lose but at the end O.John lose it for the Holland team and Taye Taiwo score for Nigeria. As far as the game enters into what we called knockout stage, one team must surely drop for the other.
I hope you find this post interesting and educating, until then, i remain my humble self @Oxygen02. The guy who support life with his writeups. Thanks for reading
