A penalty corner is not an ideal choice. I always knew that I would hit the 50cm square, says Panenka

The Czech national football team lost both of its September Nations League matches and is relegated to the Performance League B. The Czechs missed a penalty against Portugal and Switzerland, what did the legendary Antonín Panenka have to say?

The Czechs came into the Switzerland game well, they were active, they played with the ball, Adam Vlkanova hit the crossbar. But then the home team struck twice in the space of a minute, first with Ondrej Kudel’s mistake and then with Lukáš Kalvach’s second goal.

Patrik Schick scored a contact goal just before half-time, then won a penalty after the change of sides. Tomas Soucek took the ball, but failed to beat Yann Sommer with a weak shot in the middle of the goal.

“Nothing against Soucek, but I don’t think he is a footballer who should be taking penalty kicks. Heis supposed to be an end player who can kick it, has technique and Soucek is not the ideal choice for a penalty kick,” Panenka told ČT Sport.

After missing a unique chance to equalise, the Czechs still created some promising action, with substitute Jan Kuchta heading into the bar, but a win was needed to stay in the elite Nations League. In the end, not even a contact goal was scored and they were relegated after losing 1: 2.

Soucek has been kicking penalties since his time at Slavia, when he took over from Milan Škoda. He was successful in them, but in recent months he failed four times in the national team. On Tuesday, his penalty kick was truly terrible.

“There are two possibilities. Either I stand the ball up and I’m determined to give it to the right or to the left. Or I want to react to the goalkeeper’s movement – but that’s not very common nowadays, because the goalkeeper can move along the line, which he couldn’t do before and always went ahead,” the Czechoslovak football legend continued.

Originally, Schick was probably supposed to kick the penalty in Switzerland, but he missed his attempt from the white spot in the previous match against Portugal. He sent the ball high over the bar at 0:2 and missed the goal.

Against Portugal, the Czechs missed a chance to get within striking distance, while their opponents added two more goals in the second half. Cristiano Ronaldo also had his say on Schick’s penalty, warning him for leaning too far at the time of the kick.

“You can’t do it without training. I took penalties in training every day to get confidence. You practice it and you are almost infallible. I knew I would always hit the 50cm square,” Panenka added.

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