Penalty shootouts are like Russian Roulette, you pull the trigger and see what happens. Whether that's a revolver your squeezing or a football your kicking you just never know whether your luck is up. In terms of football you just don't know if your going to pick your spot cleanly and score or if the keeper is going to anticipate and smother your shot - slightly less dramatic consequences than the former but at the time i'm sure it feels like Russian Roulette for those penalty takers.

One thing is for certain, as a player partaking in a world cup penalty shootout you either avoid the bullet or shoot yourself and your team in the foot.

The Danish Implode

Last night Denmark shot itself in the foot one too many times overriding the heroics of the impressive Kasper Schmeichel who pulled off the 3 brilliant penalty saves. Schmeichel rescued Denmark in extra time with an unlikely penalty save against Luka Modric before saving two more in the actual shootout. 

The problem is the Danish players had one too many loaded bullets than even Schmeichel could rescue them from. Missing 3 penalties in a shootout is absolutely terrible, even for a team not quiet as clinical as Denmark and they will never get a better chance of reaching a World Cup Quarter Final again. One can only imagine how heart broken and demoralised Schmeichel and his father (former legendary Manchester United goal keeper) who was cheering him on from the stands must have felt to see their team miss 3 penalties. Peter could have been forgiven for mistaking his son's heroics last night as a hallucination of his own past performances in many a final.

Russian Resolve too much for the Spanish

Denmark can take some consolation in the fact that they weren't the only victim falling foul of Russian Roulette. Spain of all teams were also the victim of penalty shootout mishaps in the same night against the host nation. They were equally exposed to the brutal yet exciting nature of this last chance saloon method, guilty of missing two of their five penalties. The Russian's kept their boots firmly on the Spaniard's throats, scoring all four penalties which forced the Spanish to buckle with a second penalty miss.

Will Brazil Prove the Next Victim?

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the Brazilians also being taken to penalties. Could we have a hatrick of upsets from a penalty shootout? It's hard to believe this will happen but it's not impossible. The Mexicans are no pushovers and they are capable of surprising any team on the day. They are capable of taking Brazil to penalties if Brazil put in the sort of performance that saw them draw against Switzerland 1-1 in the group stages. Personally I would love to see Mexico beat Brazil, it would certainly be the icing on the cake for what is likely the most unpredictable World Cup I've ever seen.

What do you guys think will be the outcome of tonight's game? A penalty shootout that will claim Brazil as it's next major casualty or will the Mexicans fail to take the samba specialists even that far?