Comical misses, brilliant goalkeeping and 24 minutes of pure drama – the 34-penalty shootout

Maybe we should have known from the start that it would take a while.

Panathinaikos’ Argentine midfielder Daniel Mancini took the first penalty in the shootout against Ajax. The Greek team had scored the equalizer in the final phase of the match, which meant that the Europa League qualifying matches would have to be decided on penalties on Thursday evening.

But while he technically ‘took’ the penalty, he might as well have let the ball roll, with all the force he put behind it when he kicked it. A pitiful penalty that 40-year-old goalkeeper Remko Pasveer easily saved was the most fitting way to start a shootout that was marked by slapstick, utter incompetence and the occasional burst of excellence.

In total, there were 34 penalties. We probably don’t need to tell you that, it’s a UEFA competition record. In total, 25 were scored, two missed the target completely and seven were saved — five by Pasveer and two by Panathinaikos goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski.

Ajax, who finished second in the shoot-out, had five match points (penalties could have equalised) and squandered their first four points before emerging victorious.

Striker Brian Brobbey was brought off the Ajax bench in extra time, perhaps not explicitly to take a penalty (there were still 10 minutes to go when he came on), but certainly with a shootout in mind. He was one of 12 players who had to take two penalties. He missed both. In fact, they were both potential clinchers.

Missing one penalty in a shootout is a deep shame and embarrassment, but you get over it. Missing two is the kind of thing that can haunt you for years. Missing two potential winners… well, at least his team won in the end.

After that first (horrible) penalty from Mancini, the next eight were converted very cleverly by, among others, Steven Bergwijn, Kenneth Taylor (both Ajax) and former Leicester City winger Tete (for Panathinaikos).

Then things started to get weird. Brobbey stepped up and there seemed to be an expectation that he would make short work of this one: he is not a regular penalty taker, but had only missed one in his final year and had a prolific conversion rate as a youth player. The home crowd chanted his name, he puffed out his cheeks, struck the ball with reasonable force to the keeper’s right… and Dragowski saved it. The air left the stadium as if it had suddenly become a spaceship airlock.

Is it possible to ‘morally’ miss a penalty that you actually score? If so, that’s what the next player on the Greek team, Dutch midfielder Tonny Vilhena, did. A Feyenoord youth product, he spent eight seasons in the first team… which is another way of saying the Ajax crowd hated him.

He shot the ball low to Pasveer’s right, and the keeper got out well and was able to reach it with more than just his hand (or maybe even his arm?)…

…but the ball shot out from under him, it looked for a moment as if it would stay out of the goal – to the point that the Ajax fans started cheering – but in the end it flew over the goal and ended up in the opposite corner.

Vilhena, having heard the thoughts of the home crowd, decided to give back a little by silencing the stands. Would this come back to haunt him later in the shootout? Certainly not.

Next up for Ajax was Jordan Henderson, perhaps to remind everyone that he still plays for them. Henderson and penalties aren’t exactly great friends: it’s easy to forget because England won, but he missed their 2018 World Cup shootout win against Colombia, and has only taken one competitive penalty in regulation time for club or country since then… which he also missed for England in a Euro 2020 friendly against Romania. Fortunately, he had no trouble there, firing a shot straight down the middle and into the net with his feet.

GALLING DEEPER

Jordan Henderson – the serial winner who is now just an idea that fans hate

Then another miss: Nemanja Maksimovic made a mistake for Panathinaikos, but Pasveer saved brilliantly. But again Ajax could not take their chance, because Bertrand Traore sent his shot both high and wide, which is quite difficult from 12 meters. After this penalty, a brawl broke out in the center circle, with both teams getting irritated by this long shootout, and referee Chris Kavanagh gave a player from both sides a yellow card.

The next penalty was from Panathinaikos’ Sverrir Ingason, who went low but too close to Pasveer, who made his third save. At that moment he and opponent Dragowski hugged each other and started laughing: yes, things were getting really silly now. And things got even sillier when Ajax missed another chance to win, when Dragowski made a save on Ajax defender Youri Baas.

This was the penalty shootout that no one really wanted to win. On the sidelines, the look on Ajax coach Francesco Farioli’s face suggested he was seeing himself undergo open-heart surgery. His opponent, Diego Alonso, looked similar.

The next 14 penalties were all excellent, however, with the goalkeepers barely standing a chance. They took the kicks themselves and scored with minimal fuss, which only increased the tension. After all, 14 penalties is a normal shootout and a half. Panathinaikos’ substitutes and coaches, their arms tied to the sideline, were reprimanded for entering the field. At one point, Farioli retreated from the sideline and sat alone on the bench, his aorta pulsating about two feet in front of him.

But then there was another chance for Ajax to secure victory: central defender Filip Mladenovic of Panathinaikos tried to play it out, but the ball came too close to Pasveer, who saved with his left hand.

Redemption came. Just as he had earlier in the shootout, Brobbey stepped forward, knowing that if he scored, Ajax would be through. He stepped forward, puffed out his cheeks again, determined not to make the same mistake again — this time he wouldn’t let Dragowski near it.

And he didn’t — the problem was that the only ones who came close were in the back rows of the Johan Cruyff Arena. Brobbey unleashed an absolute Chris Waddle of a penalty high into the stands…

…and then fell apart…

…face down, unable to believe what he had just done…

…which makes for a classic “you can see the exact moment his heart breaks in two” moment…

But wait. Here comes Vilhena. You’ll remember that the former Feyenoord player silenced the Ajax fans after he (almost) scored his first penalty, which is understandable: he got yelled at, he scored and his work was done for the night because there was no way he was going to take another penalty, right?

Ah. Unfortunately for him, he was once again up against the extraordinary Pasveer. The 40-year-old isn’t Ajax’s first choice, but he seized his chance to impress here: Vilhena attempted the same penalty as his first, but this time Pasveer got more of his body behind the ball and kept him out for his fifth save.

“Five is quite a lot, yes,” he said dryly after the match, while also saying that he was laughing with former Ajax midfielder Wesley Sneijder, who was standing on the sidelines for Dutch TV during the shoot-out. “I sometimes save a penalty, but I don’t think you experience something as crazy as that very often.”

Pasveer last saved a competitive penalty in regular time in 2021, in the Eredivisie when he played for Vitesse against Heerenveen. The last shootout he took part in was again for Vitesse, against AVV Swift in the KNVB Cup in 2017. He didn’t save a single one that night.

Ajax goalkeeper Pasveer celebrates during the shoot-out (Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Remko asked why there was never a photo of a goalkeeper who had kept a clean sheet,” Farioli told AFP, referring to the many photos of Ajax greats that adorn the stadium walls. “I told him maybe he should play a bit better. But now I think we should hang a photo of him soon.”

Once again, Ajax had one kick to win. This time they did something interesting: while the other players who had taken a second penalty did so in the same order as in the first round, Ajax turned things around by sending winger Anton Gaaei for their 17th penalty, instead of Henderson. He fired low into the bottom corner, Dragowski went the wrong way and finally, finally, finally it was over.

From the moment Mancini took the first penalty to the moment Gaaei’s winning penalty hit the net, 24 minutes and two seconds had passed. Ajax won 13-12 and advanced to the play-off round. If they beat Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok, they will qualify for the Europa League phase.

This was not the longest penalty shootout of all time. That title still belongs to SC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv, who took 56 penalties in the Israeli third division play-off semi-final earlier this year.

But from Pasveer’s saves to Brobbey’s two misses and Farioli’s total desperation, there was more than enough drama to be had.

Ajax will play their second Eredivisie match of the season against NAC Breda this weekend. You would expect a nice, quiet, boring 1-0 win to do them good.

(Top photo: Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)