If two men know about the cruel twins of luck and risk, they are Gareth Southgate and Chris Waddle.
Both men have felt the searing criticism and indignity of missing penalties for England against Germany in tournament football, both unfairly so.
Chris Waddle joined Off The Ball on Thursday to assess England's last-16 draw with Germany at Wembley - the site of Southgate's lowest moment.
Chris Waddle on Southgate miss
"The good thing about it is that Gareth Southgate missed one in '96, and he's manager now so he'll take the spotlight!" Waddle says, before saying that people still remember his miss in 1990.
"We don't get to semi-finals every tournament, we haven't won anything since '66. It'll always come up, with him being the manager, at Wembley, playing Germany.
"That will be shown every day now until Tuesday and on matchday, it'll be shown on every Euros programme. Gareth is going to see a lot of that penalty.
"They might show mine a few times, I suppose. I should have bought the copyright on it!"
Waddle hopes that a player of the class of 2021 is spared the shared burden of he and Southgate.
"I hope it doesn't go to penalties because there will be an awful lot of nervous players out there. The crowd will be thinking 'here we go again'.
"Hopefully it doesn't go that far and England can put a performance on over the 90 minutes and win it."
England - Germany preview
As for England's opponents, Waddle believes that England have a good chance.
"This is a changing period in German football, the new ones are coming through.
"They will believe, coming to England, that the pressure is on England as it's at Wembley, it's Germany and England fans get pumped up about it. They'll be thinking that it's a free pass for them.
"They'll be thinking 'If we can go there, and they get beat, they'll get the criticism and we'll get the praise.'
"They have got no pressure, this is a free hit at England. I don't think many are tipping Germany to beat England.
"Because of all the games at Wembley, many people are thinking we're not going to get a better chance to win a tournament."
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