The old cliche about penalty shootouts being a lottery simply isn’t true – it takes skill and execution to score or save a spot-kick so the winner of the shootout has earned it.
That doesn’t mean that it’s the ideal situation for teams to get into as nerves can play a huge part, so if you’re holding out for a penalty shootout then it says you don’t fancy your chances of winning the game in the conventional manner by outscoring the opponent.
Man United were completely dominant in normal time tonight against Villarreal so they had to fancy their chances of wearing the opponent down and finding the winning goal.
What transpired was a bizarre refusal from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to make substitutions which would’ve kept the team fresh and allowed them to keep pushing for the winner, so it looked like he was happy to risk Villarreal finding a winner in order to take the game to penalties.
Obviously that came back to bite United in the biggest way, and it’s fair to say that the fans are incredulous with the approach from the manager
