Lionel Messi scored his second goal of the game in the 108th minute. Kylian Mbappe converted a penalty for a hat-trick 10 minutes later. And there was still time for Randal Kolo Muani to be denied a winner by a magnificent Emiliano Martinez save.
All of that occurred during extra time of the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar between France and Argentina. After the 90-minute match ended 2-2, soccer turned to its way of breaking stalemates, producing a 120-minute spectacle that showed the global pinnacle of the sport.
As the knockout stages of the 2026 World Cup are now upon us, games will no longer be able to finish level, with an extra 30 minutes of play tacked on to try to find a winner. If that does not work, as happened in Qatar, then it’s time for a penalty shootout.
So, how does extra time work, and is it always entertaining?
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What is extra time?
Extra time occurs in knockout matches when the 90 minutes of regulation play fail to produce a winner.
Soccer’s ‘overtime’ is a 30-minute period of extra play, divided into two 15-minute halves, which can also include stoppage-time add-ons at the end of each of those halves.
At the midway point of extra time, the teams swap sides just as they would between the halves of 90-minute matches, and they are granted an extra substitution for this half-hour period, meaning six changes can be made across the eventual 120-minute match.
If the scores are still level after extra time, the game goes to penalties, where five players from each side alternate taking an initial five spot kicks per team. If the match is still tied after that, the shootout becomes ‘sudden death’ — the first team to score with a penalty when the opponent doesn’t wins and progresses (or, if it’s in the final, lifts the trophy).
Mario Gotze scores Germany’s extra-time winner against Argentina in the 2014 World Cup final (Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images).
Extra time and penalties are not needed in group-stage matches because points can be shared, one each, if the teams are level after 90 minutes, but once the knockout phase begins, there must always be a winner on the day.
Thirty minutes is longer than is used in the big North American sports leagues, with the NHL having a five-minute sudden-death add-on, the NBA playing five-minute overtime periods until one side is leading when one of them ends, the NFL opting for 10 minutes of further action and MLB going to extra innings.
Is this different to stoppage time?
Yes.
Stoppage or added time, known to many as injury time, is a period of play added to every regulation half of football, to make up for the minutes lost across the half because of substitution windows, goal celebrations, time-wasting and injured players receiving treatment. And now, as of this World Cup, hydration breaks.
After the regulation 45 minutes, the fourth official on the sideline holds an electronic board aloft with the minimum number of minutes to be added illuminated. If there are further delays during these minutes, stoppage time will be extended past this initial figure.
At that previous World Cup in 2022, global football governing body FIFA’s referee chief Pierluigi Collina aimed to eradicate time-wasting, instructing officials to add on more time than usual, seeing matches average more than 100 minutes.
He has seemingly mellowed for this tournament, but the introduction of mandatory three-minute hydration breaks for the teams in the middle of each half, where the clocks don’t stop, meaning this time must be tacked on at the ends, has seen stoppage time lasting longer than is conventional.
Where did the idea of extra time come from?
The first major soccer match to use extra time was the 1875 FA Cup final in England, where Royal Engineers and Old Etonians played out a 1-1 draw. Penalty shootouts had not yet been introduced, so the final was replayed in its entirety three days later, and the Engineers won 2-0.
The World Cup has used extra time to create a positive result in tied knockout-phase matches since its inception in 1930, with games initially going to a replay if the scores remained level after the 120 minutes. Replays weren’t common — only four occurred before penalty shootouts were introduced at the 1970 tournament.
FIFA attempted to shake up extra time with the introduction of a ‘golden goal’ rule in 1993, with any goal in extra time signifying the end of the match immediately, with the team that scored it declared the winner.
The hope with this change was to make extra time more entertaining and less defensive. The reality was that sides were more scared of losing via a single error, with only four goals scored when ‘golden goal’ was in place at the World Cups of 1998 and 2002. Defender Laurent Blanc was the first player to get one, when hosts France beat Paraguay in the round of 16 at the former.
🗣️ “I had no business being there, but there comes a time when you have to try and take responsibility.”
🪙 Laurent Blanc, from 7 yards out, scored the 1st Golden Goal in #WorldCup history to power 🇫🇷 @FrenchTeam into the quarter-finals pic.twitter.com/nmLiV9blMr
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 28, 2020
But the most famous ‘golden goal’ arguably belongs to Oliver Bierhoff, who won the 1996 European Championship final for Germany against the Czech Republic five minutes into extra time. Four years later, in the next Euros final, France beat Italy by the same method when David Trezeguet netted in the 103rd-minute.
🏆 Who scored your favourite EURO-winning goal?
⏪🇩🇪 Throwback to Oliver Bierhoff’s golden goal in the EURO 1996 final ✅ pic.twitter.com/QiZIx4FjkL— UEFA EURO (@UEFAEURO) March 12, 2021
Following backlash over its use in those tournaments and in other competitions around the world, FIFA reinstated extra time’s traditional rules for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
FIFA also trialled ‘silver goal’ worldwide, where if a team led after the first 15 minutes of extra time, they won the match, but it never made it to the World Cup, and FIFA decided if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
How common is extra time?
In the past three tournaments, 17 knockout ties have gone to extra time — 35 per cent of all possible matches.
Of the 22 World Cup finals, eight have gone to extra time, including three of the past four. Andres Iniesta shot Spain to the title in 2010, Mario Gotze scored for Germany to win the 2014 edition and that 2022 final resulted in a shootout, which Argentina edged 4-2.
Andres Iniesta scores Spain’s winner in the 2010 World Cup final (Jeff Mitchell – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
England have extra time to thank for their sole World Cup success — Geoff Hurst scoring twice in the extra 30 minutes to complete a hat-trick, the only player to achieve that in a final until Mbappe matched him in Qatar — as they beat West Germany 4-2 at Wembley Stadium in 1966.
With the number of knockout ties doubling from the previous 16 to 32 with this tournament, extra time is likely to be seen more than ever at a World Cup.
Is it actually entertaining?
Hit and miss. Of the 17 games that went to extra time, only five produced a winner in the additional period of play. Fifteen goals were scored in extra time across those matches, but 10 of the matches didn’t get any.
Extra time is consistently either enthralling or delflatingly dull.
It leads to fatigue, as some players head towards 120 minutes of action and a slower tempo, and, much like ‘golden goal’ did, the 30 minutes can lead teams to play with fear of defeat rather than the desire to win, but if one side or the other does make a breakthrough during extra time, it really ups the ante.
Only twice in those 17 matches has a single extra-time goal been scored, with that final in Qatar showing what a spectacle the added 30 minutes can become once ignited.
It can be monotone or momentous, but with a penalty shootout lurking should the scores remain level, soccer’s way of settling a stalemate always produces exhilaration by the end.
