What's happening with penalties at the European Championship in Switzerland? One in three haven't resulted in a goal.

What's happening at the European Championship in Switzerland with penalties ? The maximum penalty, or advantage, in the rules of football has changed its meaning in this tournament. Eleven times, some through VAR, the referees have called a foul in the penalty area and signaled the 11-meter mark, but only seven shots have resulted in goals. Not even the effectiveness of the penalty shootout that decided England 's qualification to the semifinals was improved: of the seven shots taken, the British scored three and the Swedes were left with two. The absurdity was reflected in the fact that, of 14 shots, nine were missed, without the goalkeepers having to make spectacular saves.

In total, there were 25 penalties, of which 12 ended in goals , giving an error rate of 52%, something not seen at a European Championship since the men's tournament in France 2016 , where, excluding shootouts, the accuracy rate was slightly higher than 63% . On the eve of the semi-finals, the same percentage is being seen in Switzerland: 11 penalties and seven successes.

This statistic is influenced by the four unexpected misses by Norway and Spain . The Nordic captain, Ada Hegerberg , a forward for Olympique Lyonnais and the first woman to win a Ballon d'Or, missed both of her shots at this European Championship despite her career-long accuracy being near perfect. She made no mistake with the first in the opening match against Switzerland and the second in the quarterfinals against Italy. It would have equalized in the 60th minute, but she herself rectified the error by finishing off an attacking move in the 66th. It was no use because Girelli scored in the 90th and sent them home.

If Hegerberg's miss was surprising, so were Mariona and Alexia . The Arsenal player is Montse Tomé's choice and her accuracy rate is over 85%. Her last shot was in a December friendly against France in Nice. The memory is more painful for Alexia, who is 80% effective. She's next on the list, but despite having taken five shots for Barça this season and only missing one, she hasn't been within eleven meters of goal for Spain since the Paris Olympics, where she missed a chance to take Germany to extra time in their quest for the bronze medal.

At the Wankdorf in Bern, with Mariona no longer on the pitch, she didn't hesitate to take on the responsibility, but Peng appeared to save the day. "Only the one who throws them misses. It's true that we practice, but we have great throwers and it's okay if they miss. We don't have to change because we trust them ," assured Vicky López . She is on the list Montse Tomé has clearly defined. "Mariona is the thrower, followed by Alexia, Aitana , Vicky, or Athenea , from what we've seen in training, where everyone has practiced, but the specialists have practiced more," confessed the coach.

No cheat sheet or 'godmothers'

If it's difficult to miss two penalties in a major tournament, or two in the same match, it's rare to see a shootout where the shots can be worse than those between Sweden and England. "At least three times I thought we were eliminated," confessed Sarina Wiegman. Although they scored three, only one shot came close to perfection: Lucy Bronze 's at 102 km/h. Beforehand, she sent a message to goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, who stood between the sticks bleeding from her nose: "I told her: ' I'll put this one in, you save the next one, and it's over. '" But it didn't happen. They had to wait for Holmberg to send the last shot into the stands.

This shootout wasn't like the meticulous one Southgate prepared to knock Switzerland out of the Euro 2020 semi-finals in Germany. There was no Pickford- style cheat sheet in Hampton's bottle, nor did Wiegman manage the extra-time substitutions to bring the best specialists onto the field. Nor did he copy his former colleague's ritual protocol of seeking "godmothers" for the designated players. In the case of the youngsters, it was a teammate in charge of encouraging each taker. All to avoid a grotesque shootout, even if it has a happy ending.