⚽ How to play Penalty Shootout

By Miguel Arechaga

The penalty shootout is one of the most exciting moments in football, and here you experience it from both sides: shooting to score and saving to stop the goal. Whoever has more goals at the end of the shootout wins.

The goal

Score more penalties than the computer over a shootout of 5 rounds. In each round you have two turns: first you shoot, then you save your opponent's shot. If there's a tie after 5 rounds, it goes to sudden death.

How to play, step by step

1. Press New shootout to start.
2. When it's your turn to shoot, tap one of the 6 zones of the goal. You score if the goalkeeper dives to a different zone.
3. When it's your turn to save, tap the zone you want to dive toward. You save the penalty if you guess the exact zone your opponent shoots at.
4. The score and round are shown at all times.
5. Every shootout you win adds a win, saved in your browser.

Tips to score and save

• When shooting, go for the corners: they're the hardest zones for the goalkeeper to cover.
• Don't be predictable: if you always shoot or dive to the same side, you're easier to read; alternate between left, center, and right.
• When saving, play the odds: since you don't know where your opponent will shoot, alternate your choices to cover different zones each round.
• Stay calm in sudden death: a single miss can decide the shootout, so choose with intention, not on autopilot.

Between scoring impossible goals and reading your opponent's shot, every shootout is pure tension until the very last penalty.

Play online with 2 players

You can play Penalty Shootout against another person in several ways: press "🌐 Online" and create a room to share a 4-letter code with whoever you want to challenge, use "🔍 Find opponent" to have the system instantly match you with another available player, or add a friend by their username from the 👥 Friends panel (while signed in) and press "Challenge" next to their name to invite them directly to a match. You can also both play on the same device by pressing "👥 2 players": one shoots secretly and the other saves, over a shootout of 5 penalties.

🏆 Wins ranking

All your online Penalty Shootout matches are recorded on your account: every win (and every loss) adds to your history. Go to Ranking, the 🎮 2 Players tab, choose "Penalty Shootout" from the dropdown, and check your position against other players, synced across all your devices. For your result to count you need a free account on MundoSudoku (just a username and password, no email required): you can play without one, but without signing in your score isn't saved to the ranking.