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Qatar World Cup: the pressure of penalties

We analyse penalty data from the World Cup and ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot

The World Cup in Qatar is drawing to a close. Penalties and penalty shootouts have provided some of the biggest moments of the tournament. We analyse penalty data from the World Cup and ask what boosts the chance of scoring from the spot, with the help of Ben Lyttleton, author of Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty.

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9 minutes

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Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

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BBC Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast