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Eden Hazard the new penalty taker king; Julio Cesar the best stopper

On Sunday, Leighton Baines' 100 percent record from penalty kicks ended as Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea denied the Everton left-back.

Baines, who previously looked unflappable from the spot, had scored 12 from 12 before spurning his opportunity at Old Trafford, leaving him with a conversion percentage of 92.3.

Who else, if anyone, still has a 100 percent penalty record? We crunched the numbers of those players to have taken 10 or more penalties across Europe since 2010-11 and discovered the following ...


Best in Europe

- Eden Hazard (Chelsea): 16 penalties, 16 goals = 100%


Best in La Liga

- Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): 37 penalties, 35 goals = 94.6%


Best in the Bundesliga

- Sejad Salihovic (Hoffenheim): 24 penalties, 21 goals = 87.5%


Best in Serie A

- Giuseppe Rossi (Fiorentina): 13 penalties, 12 goals = 92.3%


Best in Ligue 1

- Ryad Boudebouz (Bastia): 11 penalties, 11 goals = 100%



What about Messi and Ibrahimovic?

- Both Lionel Messi (Barcelona) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain) have conversion rates of 88.9 percent, having each scored 24 times from 27 attempts.


What about the goalkeepers?

Respect for the shot-stoppers is also due, especially after at the weekend Valencia's Diego Alves kept up his superb record when facing shots from 12 yards.

Again, the below statistics are based on records since the 2010-11 campaign.


1. Julio Cesar (ex-QPR, now at Benfica): 11 penalties faced, six conceded.

2. Samir Handanovic (Inter Milan): 29 penalties faced, 16 conceded.

3. Asmir Begovic (Stoke): 12 penalties faced, seven conceded.

4. Bernd Leno (Bayer Leverkusen): 20 penalties faced, 12 conceded.

5. Kevin Trapp (Frankfurt): 13 penalties faced, eight conceded.