5 famous 'two-man' penalties in footballing history
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scored a two-man penalty against Celta VigoPenalties are usually a one-on-one battle between a goalkeeper and the penalty taker. It’s a duel of nerves, although when the tension is taken out of the situation, footballers can come up with quite cheeky attempts at a penalty, most notably the ‘two-man’ penalty.‘Tandem’ penalties, ‘tap’ penalties – whatever moniker you ascribe to this rare footballing occurrence, one can be in no doubt that it takes an ingenious footballing brain to come with the idea and a rare bravado to actually execute it on the football pitch.Lionel Messi added to his extensive highlights reel with an exquisite touch that was originally aimed at Neymar, but Luis Suarez rushed to slot the ball into the bottom corner. Barcelona’s impish penalty against Celta Vigo in La Liga wasn’t the first time this had occurred, with an effort in 1957 being the earliest one could trace it back.Here are five ‘tap’ penalties that have become infamous:
#1 Rik Coppens and Andre Piters - Belgium
June 5, 1957 – this was the date where the earliest recorded two-man penalty took place. Belgium faced Iceland in a qualifying tie for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, and the hosts earned a penalty towards the end of the first half. The Red Devils were already leading 6-1, so there wasn’t much at stake when Rik Coppens stepped up to take the penalty in the 44th minute.
The Belgian, who was 27 years old then, had a penchant for the flamboyant, as he tapped the ball to an onrushing Andre Piters, drawing Icelandic keeper Bjorgvin Hermannson of his line, allowing Piters to astonishingly tap the ball back to Coppens, who duly scored into an empty net. The match eventually finished 8-3, yet the scoreline wasn’t the one that would go on to grab the headlines.
The crowd were naturally incredulous, and so was Coppen’s former teammate Theo van Rooy, who said “He was a real extrovert on the pitch. He loved doing things to make people say ‘wow’, and the whole stadium was saying ‘wow’ that day. It’s a good job he pulled it off mind – can you imagine what they’d have said if he missed doing something like that?”
Thankfully he never had to – here’s a video of Coppen‘s effort.