David Beckham, Neymar, Simone Zaza: Seven worst penalties in football history
IT’S 11 years since Thierry Henry and Robert Pires produced the worst penalty in Premier League history.
The French pair fluffed their lines when handed the opportunity to double their 1-0 lead against Manchester City from the spot.
Pires was supposed to dummy a shot and pass the ball to team-mate Henry, who easily slot past the presumably bamboozled David James in goal.
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However former Arsenal and France winger, Pires — who had scored a penalty, failed with his attempted kick and touched the ball twice.
The referee blew for a free-kick the other way and Henry was visibly incensed as he berated his club and international pal.
In honour of the infamous attempt, here are the seven worst penalties of all-time.
Simone Zaza vs Germany, 2016
THE West Ham man redefined the art of penalty-taking with this shocking effort.
Zaza’s bizarre run-up became soon became an inspiration for jokes, memes and gifs — so much so that the actual effort itself is almost forgotten.
He blazed it over the bar as Italy crashed out of Euro 2016 at the quarter-final stage.
A Hall of Fame penalty.
David Beckham vs Turkey, 2003
A 0-0 draw would have been enough to seal England’s passage to Euro 2004.
And Beckham played his part to ensure the score would stay just that as blazed his spot-kick way over the bar.
Aston Villa’s Alpay Ozlan rubbed salt in the wounds by laughing at the then Real Madrid winger after his miss.
To be fair, the list of terrible England penalties is endless.
Jaap Stam vs Italy, 2000
THIS Euro 2000 semi-final pitted sides together who could legitimately claim to have worst shoot-out record than England.
And it took some special misses to ensure Italy progressed.
Big Manchester United man, Stam gets the nod with this absolute thunderbolt which went to high over the bar, it actually left the stadium.
The Netherlands’ only scorer in that shoot-out was Patrick Kluivert, who had missed one during the match.
Neymar vs Colombia, 2012
THIS is a truly bizarre effort.
Neymar actually seems lean back in an effort to get as much height as possible.
His miss was somewhat overshadowed as Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted four against England on the same night.
The Brazilian was still at Santos at the time — so maybe Barcelona just didn’t notice.
Diana Ross
SAY what you want about their knowledge of football, but the States know how to throw a party.
Their USA’s over-the-top half-time shows at major sporting events are often more entertaining that the match itself.
And, as part of their opening ceremony for the 1994 World Cup, singer Diana Ross, just had to score from literally six yards out to break the net, run through and carry on singing.
She steadied herself, took aim, waited a little more the tamely hit the ball wide.
Amir Sayoud
THIS effort was so bad, the taker was actually BOOKED.
It was an Egyptian cup match — but the pressure was off as Al Ahly were leading Kima Aswan 4-0.
Sayoud coolly started his run up, stuttered, fell and proceeded to pass the ball to the goalkeeper.
His embarrassment was compounded when the referee produced the yellow card.
Manchester United vs Sunderland, 2014
TAKE your pick — the worst penalty shoot-out you will ever see.
Seven of the ten penalties were missed as the League Cup semi-final shoot-out ended 2-1 in Sunderland’s favour.
In many ways, this complete farce — and the fact not one United player looked comfortable taking a penalty — summed up David Moyes’ Old Trafford reign.
Phil Jones’ shocker would probably have to be considered the worst of an utterly dreadful bunch.