Extra Time and Penalty Shootouts Explained
How knockout football decides a draw: the two 15-minute periods, the extra substitution, and the shootout rules most fans get wrong.
A knockout match has to produce a winner. The mechanism for that is thirty extra minutes and, if those settle nothing, a shootout that most people watch every season without knowing half the rules governing it.
Extra time is not stoppage time
Worth separating these two immediately, because they get mixed up constantly.
Stoppage time is added to the end of each half of every match to make up for time the clock kept running through. Extra time is a separate 30 minutes played only in a knockout tie that is level after 90. Our guide to stoppage time covers the first one.
League matches never go to extra time. A draw is a draw, both teams take a point, and everyone goes home. It only exists where somebody has to progress.
How the thirty minutes work
Two halves of 15 minutes, with teams changing ends between them.
There is no real interval. Players get a short break on the pitch, usually a minute or so, rather than going back to the dressing room. The idea is to keep the match moving rather than give managers another full team talk.
Each half of extra time gets its own stoppage time, calculated the same way as in normal play. So a match that goes the distance runs past 120 minutes before penalties are even considered, and 125 or 130 is not unusual once injuries and celebrations are counted.
The extra substitution
Teams get one additional substitution in extra time, on top of whatever they have already used, plus an extra window to make it.
This matters more than it sounds. A manager who has used every change by the 85th minute still has one left if the match goes on, which is why you occasionally see a side hold something back rather than empty the bench chasing a winner. Our guide to substitution rules covers the normal allocation and the windows.
Golden goal, and why it died
For a stretch in the late 1990s and early 2000s, extra time used the golden goal: the first team to score won instantly, match over.
It was introduced to encourage attacking football. It did the opposite. Because conceding meant immediate elimination with no chance to respond, teams became extremely cautious, and a lot of golden goal periods were thirty minutes of two sides refusing to commit anyone forward.
A silver goal version followed, where a team leading at the end of the first extra period won. That lasted even less time and had the same flaw in a milder form.
Both were abandoned. Extra time now runs its full thirty minutes regardless of what happens, which at least means a team that concedes early has a chance to come back.
Away goals are gone too
For decades, a two-legged tie level on aggregate was settled by whoever had scored more goals away from home, and that rule applied through extra time as well. It produced some strange incentives, most obviously a home side in the second leg being punished for conceding in a period the away side had not yet had an equivalent chance to play.
UEFA scrapped it. A two-legged tie level after 180 minutes now goes to extra time and then penalties, with an away goal worth exactly the same as a home one.
The shootout: what actually happens
Once 120 minutes settle nothing, the referee runs a set procedure.
Two coin tosses. The first decides which goal the shootout is taken at. Fans often assume this is chosen to favour one set of supporters, but it comes down to a coin, pitch condition and safety. The second toss gives a captain the choice of taking first or second.
Five kicks each, alternating. Team A, team B, team A, and so on. If one side goes 3-0 up with two kicks remaining for the other, it stops there, because the result can no longer change.
Sudden death after five. One kick each per round. The moment one team scores and the other misses from the same number of kicks, it is over. There is no limit, and shootouts have run well past twenty kicks a side.
Who is allowed to take one
Only players on the pitch when the match ended. That includes the goalkeeper, who is entitled to take a kick like anyone else.
Substituted players cannot come back on for the shootout, which is why a manager weighing a change in the 118th minute is also deciding who will and will not be available to take a penalty.
Every eligible player has to take a kick before anyone takes a second. Nobody gets to step up twice while a nervous defender hides at the halfway line.
Reduce to equate
If one team finishes with fewer players, through a red card or an injury after substitutions ran out, the other team must reduce to equate: cut its own number down to match before the shootout starts.
The manager chooses who drops out and tells the referee. It sounds harsh on the team that kept eleven men, and it is, but the alternative would let a side with more players draw its five kicks from a bigger pool of specialists.
The rules people get wrong
The goalkeeper's feet. A keeper must have at least part of one foot on or in line with the goal line when the kick is taken. He can move along it, but leaving it early is an offence. If the kick misses or is saved, it is retaken. If it goes in, the goal stands.
Encroachment. Everyone except the taker and the goalkeeper stays outside the penalty area, outside the arc, and behind the ball. A teammate entering early and the kick being missed means a retake. An opponent entering early and the kick being scored means the goal stands.
The taker's run-up. Stopping is allowed. Feinting at the end of the run-up, after the run has been completed, is not, and it is punished as an indirect free kick rather than a retake.
One touch only. The taker cannot play the ball again. There are no rebounds in a shootout. A kick that comes back off the post and stays out is simply a miss.
Why shootouts feel unfair
They mostly are, in the sense that they test something only loosely related to what the previous two hours tested.
The team that takes the first kick wins more often than not, which is where the interest in alternative formats came from. IFAB trialled an ABBA order in 2017, modelled on a tennis tiebreak: A, then BB, then AA, and so on, to spread the pressure more evenly. It was dropped in 2018 after limited support, so the standard alternating order is what you will see.
There is no better mechanism on offer. Replays vanished because the calendar cannot absorb them, and nothing else settles a tie in ten minutes with a stadium still full. Penalties survive because everything else is worse, not because anyone thinks they are fair.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is extra time in football?
Thirty minutes, played as two halves of 15 with a short break between them. There is no proper half-time interval, and teams change ends.
Do teams get an extra substitution in extra time?
Yes. Each team gets one additional substitution beyond its normal allocation, plus an extra window in which to use it.
What is the golden goal and is it still used?
A rule where the first goal in extra time ended the match immediately. It was scrapped because it made teams defend rather than attack, since conceding once meant instant elimination. A silver goal variant was also tried and dropped.
Who decides which team takes the first penalty in a shootout?
A coin toss. The referee tosses once to decide which goal the shootout is taken at, then again for which captain chooses whether their team goes first or second.
What happens if the shootout is still level after five kicks each?
It goes to sudden death. Each team takes one kick per round, and the first time one scores while the other misses from the same number of kicks, the shootout ends.
Can any player take a penalty in a shootout?
Only players who were on the pitch when the match ended, including the goalkeeper. Substituted players cannot come back on, and every eligible player must take a kick before anyone takes a second.
What is reduce to equate?
If one team has fewer players than the other at the end of the match, the larger team reduces its number to match, so both sides pick from the same-sized pool.
Where does the goalkeeper have to stand for a penalty?
With at least part of one foot on or in line with the goal line until the ball is kicked. Moving off it early can mean a retake if the kick is missed.
