Panenka talks about that penalty - 40 years on

The famous Panenka penalty kick was forged out of years of practice and earned its creator plenty of loose change and chocolate long before it gained him football immortality.

Czechoslovakia were 4-3 up in the shoot-out at the end of a keenly fought European Championship final against West Germany at the Red Star Stadium in Belgrade on June 20, 1976, when Uli Hoeness ballooned the Germans' fourth penalty over the crossbar.

That left Antonin Panenka with the chance to win it with the Czechs' fifth and final spot-kick.

"I knew two months before the Euros that (a shoot-out) was going to happen," he told Press Association Sport in an interview to mark the 40th anniversary of his audacious kick.

"We knew that we could get Holland or Germany or Yugoslavia - all teams who were strong - and we knew we would probably meet them. We knew it would go to penalties too, so yes, we were prepared for it, and I knew what to do."

What Panenka did that day has been talked about and imitated ever since.

Faced with World Cup-winning West Germany goalkeeper Sepp Maier, Panenka shunned the more conventional technique of trying to smash it into either the top right or left corner and instead chipped his spot-kick straight down the middle of the goal.

Panenka recalled: "I knew it was not going to be easy to beat Maier because up to that moment everybody had picked a corner, and the goalkeepers had also always gone for a corner, but I didn't know which one he would go for.

"So I knew that, by shooting this way, I would be successful because no goalkeeper stands still, especially not in the final of a European Championship."

Panenka was correct. Maier dived to his left and Panenka's penalty sailed beyond him to secure the Czechs' first - and so far only - senior success in a major international tournament.

Just as Panenka had expected a shoot-out, the decision to chip was an equally calculated one - a skill that had been honed for hours on the training ground with his team-mate, Bohemians goalkeeper Zdenek Hruska.

"I had started doing it about two years before the European Championship," he said.

"After every training session, I would stay behind with our goalkeeper and we would have a duel with free-kicks or penalties. It was always for money or for chocolate or something and, well, it was starting to cost me a lot of money! So I asked myself, what could I do so that I am successful?

"I worked out that goalkeepers wait until the last minute and then dive either left or right. I worked out that if I shot hard down the centre, he could still get it with his foot. But if I hit it lightly, and the goalkeeper dives left or right, then he can't save it.

"So I did it a lot in training, and then in small friendly matches and also in the top Czech league, and of course the highlight was that final. I really had done it at least four or five times in those two years before Euro 1976."

Panenka's kick was immediately lauded and some of the greats of the game over recent years - Lionel Messi, Andrea Pirlo and Zinedine Zidane to name three - have performed their own tributes to the original pioneer, while others have spectacularly crashed and burned attempting the risky technique.

"To be honest, I'm very happy and proud (to see others try it)," said Panenka, who is now the chairman of the Prague-based Bohemians club he played for between 1967 and 1981.

"It's a great pleasure for me when I see that such fantastic players - the best in the world - take a penalty the way I did. It makes me proud because I know it has been immortalised.

"When I see (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic, (Francesco) Totti, (Sergio) Ramos or (Zinedine) Zidane - some of the best players in the world - take a penalty which had never been seen before back when I did it, it's such an honour."

But what about the man who he beat that day 40 years ago? Had he spoken to Sepp Maier about it?

"I didn't speak to him straight after the game, but we have met a few times since and it was always a bit awkward," Panenka admits.

"It was a bit cheeky of me as I made a bit of a fool out of him and it made him look like a clown. But that was never my intention. At that moment, I just felt it was the best way to score a penalty. I never wanted to make a fool out of him - I just had to score."

Maier's compatriots ensured they were never fooled again, and since that defeat the German national team have forged a reputation as the masters of the penalty shoot-out themselves.

"It's all about preparation," Panenka said when asked what the secret of shoot-out success was.

"We were always well prepared for penalties and Germany probably didn't expect it to go to penalties then (in 1976), so that was an advantage for us.

"Everybody can take a penalty - I think you take hundreds or thousands of penalties in training, but it's important to keep your nerve. When I play well, I am in a good mood and optimistic, and this is how you score."