Ben Lyttleton

And they all said pretty much the same thing.

There's nothing we can do about it.

We're just a bit unlucky.

And that changed when Gareth Southgate became England coach.

And the reason that changed is because Southgate himself had gone through what it feels like to not only be on the losing side of a shootout, which he was in 1996, but also to miss the decisive penalty.

So then when Southgate prepared England for the 2018 World Cup and they had a shootout against Colombia, they won it.

And it was the first time they'd won a World Cup shootout.

And the reason they won it was because the England team stopped saying this is a lottery even before the game.

Gareth Southgate said, we've practiced penalties.

We know what to expect.

We're prepared for this.

It was in the 1982 World Cup semi-final between France and West Germany.

And this was a shootout that was watched by millions of people all over the world.

And it was in colour so we could see it all in its full glory.

And that really ended the debate about whether penalty shootouts were a good idea.

We saw a German player, Uli Stielicke, step up, strong, defensive player, step up and take a penalty, and his penalty was saved.

And the response from the player to that penalty save was really curious, interesting and very different, because as soon as his penalty was saved, he fell to the ground and curled up in a ball.

And what we saw...

from that moment was that the power of the penalty is enormous.

It can reduce an elite athlete playing in a World Cup semi-final to a childlike, infantile state.