The penalties every team is dreading in the knockout stages of round 16 in the tournament may just become a reality.

Recapping history, there have been 22 penalty shootouts in the World Cup, with the recent one coming from the Uruguay-Ghana match in 2010.

Germany has the fewest shootouts; having missed only one out of the eighteen attempts. Germany has won four championships and scored a first shootout in a match against France in the tournament in 1982.

Audiences were gripped with excitement as German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher scored a goal against Patrick Battiston. This incident caused the latter to be left unconscious and falling off three teeth, in 5-4 win in Seville. Germany disappointed Sir Bobby Robson's hopes with a win in shoot out, 4-3, after Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce missed scoring.

Argentina produced stars such as Diego Maradona and Ossie Ardiles. However, they proved to be weak in avoiding penalty shootouts, to eventually score in their previous matches. Their star players seemed to have not produced the outstanding performances everybody were expecting. The Argentinean players have missed scoring several times to withstand their opponents.

The only tournament achievement that Argentina can be proud of though, was being the second best team in the World Cup, winning three, and losing only one. That was a minimal accomplishment as compared to the accomplishments achieved by other teams in the tournament. Diego Maradona led Argentina to make it to the 1990 with wins against Yugoslavia and Italy, and one loss to Germany.