Penalty kicks are rife with tension as one of the best parts of watching international soccer. Unfortunately, if you’re a fan of these dramatic events, you’ll wait until the 2023 World Cup reaches the knockout stages.
You see, in the group stage, every team is awarded three points for a win and one point for a draw. If there’s a tie in the standings, goal differential becomes the tiebreaker. Such a round-robin setup makes having extra time redundant. Plus, more importantly, playing 120 minutes in the group stage would make little sense for a month-long tournament.
The group stage is fun and chaotic, but it’s technically supposed to be an appetizer to the main course of the win-or-go-home knockouts.
Have patience during this tournament. We’ll get to faint during sudden death and a penalty shootout soon enough.
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