When extra time applies
Extra time only comes into play in knockout matches that must produce a winner — cup finals, knockout rounds of major tournaments, playoff deciders. A regular league match that ends level simply stays a draw, with both teams collecting one point each. It is only in single-elimination football, where somebody has to advance and somebody has to be eliminated, that the rules around forcing a result kick in.
How extra time works
If a knockout match is level after ninety minutes of normal play, two additional periods of fifteen minutes each are played, for a total of thirty extra minutes. Unlike some other sports, football's extra time does not use sudden-death rules — both full fifteen-minute periods are played out completely, even if a team scores early in extra time. The only exception is that the match ends immediately once the added minutes at the end of the second period run out.
What happens if extra time doesn't settle it
If the two teams are still level after a full thirty minutes of extra time, the match goes to a penalty shootout. This is the mechanism that decided several of the biggest matches in football history when normal play and extra time both failed to separate two evenly matched sides — including deciding the 2026 World Cup final would have gone this way had Ferran Torres not scored Spain's winner during extra time itself.
How a penalty shootout actually works
Each team selects five players to take penalties in turn, alternating with the opposition, with the team scoring the most out of their five declared the winner. If the shootout is still level after five penalties each, it moves to sudden death — one penalty each per round — and continues until one team has scored and the other has missed in the same round. A player who has already taken a penalty cannot take another until every eligible outfield player and the goalkeeper on their team have had a turn.
Why this method, specifically
A penalty shootout is not football in the conventional sense, and it is often criticised for reducing a team performance to individual moments under extreme pressure. It exists because a tournament schedule cannot accommodate matches running indefinitely, and unlike replaying the entire fixture, a shootout produces a winner in minutes without requiring players to take the field again days later.
More football coverage
For how extra time actually decided the biggest match of 2026, read our recap of Spain's win over Argentina in the World Cup final. More like this in our Sports section.
