I just saw a cup match in India where, in regular time, a player was sent off and the match ended 2–2. In the penalty shootout, both teams took 10 kicks each, and all were scored, so the score was still tied. Then the team with 11 players came up to take the 11th kick, and that player, assuming he was the least skilled penalty taker, missed. After that, the team with the reduced number of players restarted the sequence, their most skilled kicker took the penalty and scored, winning the shootout.

The developers need to fix this loophole.

Good catch, and thanks for the detailed report, this made it easy to track down.

You're right about what happened. Penalty takers are ordered and once a team has used everyone, the list restarts from the top. Since the team with the red card had one fewer player, they got back to their best taker one round earlier than the opponent. So having more players was actually a disadvantage in long shootouts.

Real football handles this with the "reduce to equal" rule (the team with more players drops kickers to match the opponent before the shootout starts), and that's exactly what we've implemented. Both teams now cycle through the same number of takers, so they reset to their best kicker on the same round.

The fix is deployed and applies to all future shootouts. Thanks again for reporting it!