Football, Explained: What Is the Longest Penalty Shootout Ever Recorded?
Ever wondered what the longest penalty shootout ever recorded was? Dragon Football has you covered.
Penalty shootouts have become as much a part of the World Cup experience as sticker albums and existential dread. Since the format was introduced in 1978, football’s biggest tournament has repeatedly served up the kind of drama that leaves players unable to watch and supporters unable to look away.
Think of Roberto Baggio staring into the Pasadena sky, Lionel Messi hoisted onto shoulders in Lusail, or England supporters instinctively preparing for emotional trauma the moment extra time begins.
They are football’s most brutal lottery and, increasingly, an unavoidable part of tournament football.
Sometimes, though, five penalties each simply are not enough.
The longest penalty shootout in men’s World Cup history remains a shared record. It happened first in the famous 1982 semi-final between West Germany and France, the match remembered as the Night of Seville.
After a chaotic 3-3 draw, football’s biggest tournament witnessed its first-ever shootout. The sides were inseparable through the initial five kicks and into sudden death, eventually requiring 12 penalties before West Germany prevailed 5-4.
Maxime Bossis’ miss proved decisive, and Toni Schumacher completed one of the most controversial and unforgettable nights in World Cup history.
Twelve years later, the record was matched. Sweden and Romania contested a tense quarter-final at USA ’94 that finished goalless after extra time.
The shootout stretched into sudden death and again needed 12 kicks. Sweden emerged with a 5-4 win after Miodrag Belodedici struck the crossbar.
Despite dozens of shootouts since, no men’s World Cup tie has gone longer.
The women’s tournament, though, has gone further. Australia’s quarter-final against France at the 2023 Women’s World Cup lasted 20 penalties before the Matildas finally won 7-6 in Brisbane.
FIFA recognise it as the longest shootout in World Cup history across both the men’s and women’s competitions.
Club football tops the list
Club football in England has proved capable of even greater absurdity.
The longest shootout in English professional football arrived in December 2024, when Blackpool hosted Aston Villa Under-21s in the EFL Trophy. Villa’s academy side held Blackpool to a 1-1 draw and then the two sides proceeded to turn the shootout into an endurance contest.
One by one, the penalties kept flying in. Thirty-one consecutive efforts were converted, which is recognised as a global record for the most consecutive successful spot kicks in a shootout.
Goalkeepers scored and players who had already celebrated once found themselves back at the spot. The crowd inside Bloomfield Road could scarcely believe what they were watching.
Eventually, after 38 penalties, Blackpool defender Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel hit the post with his side’s nineteenth attempt. Villa’s youngsters claimed an 18-17 victory and set a new record for English professional football.
Yet even that marathon does not come close to the longest shootout in professional football history.
That distinction belongs to a promotion play-off semi-final in Israel’s Liga Alef South division. In May 2024, FC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv finished level at 2-2 after extra time. What followed defied logic.
The first ten penalties came and went. Then another ten. Then another. Goalkeepers became scorers. Players returned for second attempts. Misses became such a rarity that when one finally arrived, it felt almost shocking. By the time the dust settled, an astonishing 56 penalties had been taken.
FC Dimona emerged victorious, 23-22. Half the players involved had taken penalties three times. The previous world record had fallen and a new benchmark for footballing endurance had been established.
Penalty shootouts were designed to bring order to football’s chaos. Most of the time, they do. But every now and then, the sport seems determined to resist a tidy ending.
After 56 kicks, three turns each for some players and a scoreline that looked more suited to basketball than football, FC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv finally produced a winner.
The rest of us were left with a reminder that football’s simplest solution can occasionally become its strangest spectacle.