Let the Euro shootouts begin, says "Professor of Penalties" Jordet

DUESSELDORF, Germany : As Euro 2024 hits the knockout stage and the spectre of the penalty shootout moves into view, anyone daring to mention the term "lottery" needs to run to their nearest bookshop and devour the latest publication by the world expert on the subject.

Norwegian Geir Jordet has spent almost two decades watching, analysing and discussing them - including four at the last Euros - and has distilled that knowledge into a fascinating new book called "Pressure. Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout."

It is not often that the work of a behavioural scientist changes the behaviour of those he is studying but Jordet has been a pathfinder in a long-neglected area of the game that - laughably in his view - is written off by many as something that cannot be practised.

So influential has he been that, after publishing his early findings that players who rushed their kicks immediately on the sound of the referee's whistle were more likely to miss than those who took their time, they started to take longer.

Jordet's book follows the story of the shootout from its somewhat chaotic early days in the 1970s and peaks at the astonishing finale to the 2022 World Cup.

He has laboriously mined and examined data from every shootout in the World Cup, Euros and Champions League - getting towards 100 in all - as well as many in the women's game.

The book explains some key things that players should and should not do, both when preparing for their own moment in the spotlight and when dealing with a team mate's miss, while he also shows how the laws around shootouts are still something of a wild west that are increasingly tested by goalkeepers.

Additionally he can barely disguise his astonishment that, despite the wealth of