England’s footballers are some of the best penalty takers in the world and are not plagued by a spot kick curse, according to a scientific study.

England lost on penalties at the World Cup in 1990, 1998 and 2006, alongside a loss at the 1996 Euros.

But German researchers have published a paper on journal website Scientific Reports which states that the team’s shootout failures are just down to bad luck.

A team of researchers at the German Sport University of Cologne gathered data on nearly 700 penalty kicks taken at World Cups and European Championships since 1976, when shoot-outs were introduced.

They also looked at nearly 5,000 penalties awarded in the top German, English, Spanish, Italian and Dutch leagues from 2006 to 2016.

During their research, they concluded that English players performed worse in shootouts, with a score record of 61%, than for in-game penalties during World and European Championships (90%) and European leagues (75%).

Their data showed that English players slightly over-performed for in-game penalties and underperformed in shootouts. However, none of these comparisons reached “statistical significance,” Michel Brinkschulte who leads the study said.

He added: “Based on these findings, we conclude that the factor nationality does not explain meaningful variance in penalty performance.

“The explanation for the poor performance in penalty shootouts of the England national team in the past most likely lies with other factors including the unreliable measurement of penalty performance.”

He added that the reason the stereotype has been created was a result of losses at key matches, which proved more emotional for fans.

“This cognitive bias might contribute to the stereotype that English players are bad at penalty kicks as a loss in an emotional penalty shootout during a World or European Cup arguably comes more easily to mind than an in-game penalty,” he added. “In turn, people believe that English players miss more penalties than they actually do.”

Their findings raise the question that players may buckle under the pressure of when trying to take penalty shootouts.

But the researchers quashed this theory as during the shoot-outs, with 387 different players kicking 473 penalties, England’s average success rate was 61% – just 11% below the average.

In comparison, Germany’s players performed 10 per cent better in shoot-outs – reaching 85% – compared with penalties taken during the game itself (75%).

Concluding the team’s findings, Mr Brinkschulte said: “It has also been suggested that the more prevalent belief amongst English coaches and players that penalty shootouts are a lottery and their outcome is simply due to chance has caused the national team to not prepare adequately for these events, potentially contributing to poorer performance.

“In this respect, other nations like Germany that have performed above average in high-pressure shootouts might prepare more effectively for these unique events. This poses the question of how teams and players can optimally prepare for these events.”

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