The statistics behind Germany's incredible World Cup penalties record

Whether playing as West Germany or Germany, the nation has never lost a penalty shootout at a World Cup. Incredibly, German players have scored 94% of their penalties with 6% saved and 0% missed. 

In their last 4 World Cup penalty shootouts, Der Mannschaft have taken 18 kicks and scored 17, including the famous semi-final against England in which Chris Waddle blasted over the bar to send Bobby Robson's men home from Italia '90. Of these 17 penalities, the goalkeeper has not even touched the ball once.

Germany's success does not come just in scoring penalties, but saving them too. 39% of penalties the nation have faced have been saved, compared to 26% of penalities being saved in the Premier League.

However, Germany's most recent performance at a major tournament is a cause for optimism should any side face them in a shootout this summer. In the quater-final against Italy at Euro 2016, Thomas Muller became the first German player for 34 years to fail to convert a spot-kick at a major tournament. More surprisingly, both Mesut Ozil and Bastian Schweinsteiger also went on to miss their kicks later on in the shootout, which could mean that German dominance in this format is at an end.