England Penalty Shoot Outs

• The first penalty shoot-out, or to give it it's official name "Kicks from the penalty mark", that England were involved in, was against Germany in the World Cup '90 semi-final.
  Penalty shoot-outs are covered in rule 10 of the game as dictated by the rule making body IFAB. They are primarily used in competitions where a result must be forced on the day. The first major tournament to include penalty shoot-outs was the 1976 European Championship. Prior to that there was usually a replay within a couple of days of the draw, or in the case of the Home Championship the title was shared. However, modern day football demands a winner. We are not convinced that winning on penalties should be classified as a full win - even FIFAs own ranking procedure doesn't give full points to a team who "won on penalties". Therefore we have taken the decision to classify penalty shoot-outs as draws. You might be inclined to think this a cynical tactic by us to ease the pain of England's usual capitulation in shoot-outs but please read on - England aren't that bad at taking penalties these days. Besides, the winner of the shoot-out progresses to the next round or is crowned champions - the loser gets nothing - not much to say for a team that has battled and matched their foe for one hundred and twenty minutes before the lottery of penalty kicks - we think that the least the victor can do is conceed a draw is worthy of both teams.
• Why do England always do badly in Penalty Shoot-Outs? - a bit of englandstats analysis - November 2018.
  
  England traditionally have been awful at Penalty Shoot-Outs. Until the 2018 World Cup finals they had only triumphed in one - against Spain in Euro '96, however they successfully doubled their tally when they overcame Colombia in the last 16 at the 2018 World Cup. Won 2 Lost 7. Work in progress, I guess?!
  The number of penalties taken is relatively even: England 45 - Opposition 46. So we can have a look at the numbers to see if a pattern emerges. Hitting the target doesn't seem to be a problem. England have only missed the target three times whilst opposition takers have missed six times. So clearly being able to hit a target 24ft wide and 8ft high from 12 yards is not the issue. However, if we look at the goalkeepers we find that opposition 'keepers managed to save 12 England penalties whereas England goalkeepers have only saved four. Also, in all but one of the penalty shoot-outs the opposition goalkeeper has managed to save at least one of England's spot kicks.
  Being able to tuck the ball just inside the post or into the roof of the net is difficult and the risk of missing the target obviously increases. What we can read from the statistics is that English takers seem to be more content with the 50/50 approach of trying to make the 'keeper dive the wrong way, whereas opposition takers are far more willing to take a risk of putting the ball beyond the reach of the 'keeper. It's only a small data sample but it would seem that it's a risk worth taking.
• June 2019 Update
  England have since gone on to win another shoot-out, this time against Switzerland in the UEFA Nations League in June 2019. So we now have a larger data sample than before. Both recent shoot-outs (2018 & 2019) have expanded on the theory that England players have no problem hitting the target. They have successfully converted 10 out of their last 11 penalties.