World Cup 2026: What are the extra-time and penalty shootout rules?

EXPLAINERBoth Morocco vs Netherlands and Paraguay vs Germany ended in dramatic penalty shootouts.Two of Monday’s Round of 32 World Cup football matches ended in dramatic penalty shootouts after 1-1 draws.In Germany vs Paraguay, both teams scored one goal during regular time. While Germany scored another goal, the referee watched a video replay and overturned the goal by Jonathan Tah due to a foul by Waldemar Anton on goalkeeper Orlando Gill. Gill then saved two shots, and Paraguay won the penalty shootout by 4-3, handing Germany its first-ever World Cup penalty shootout loss in football history. In its match against the Netherlands, Morocco scored one goal during the last few minutes of the game, equalising to a 1-1 tie. Morocco then claimed a 3-2 victory on the following penalty shootout.In this explainer, we break down what extra time is, and what the rules for extra time and penalty shootouts are.If the 90 minutes of standard gameplay fail to yield a winner in the World Cup knockout stages, extra time, or an additional period of play, is used to determine a winner.This is a tiebreaker phase before moving on to penalties to determine the winner of the match.Extra time lasts for a total of 30 minutes, broken into two 15-minute halves.At half-time, the teams switch sides as they do during a 90-minute match.When does a penalty shootout happen?A penalty shootout – when a series of strikers from each side takes aim at the goal one after another – takes place if a match is still tied after the 30 minutes of extra time.