Panenka reveals fascinating story behind his penalty replicated by Messi, Zidane, and Pirlo

It is a remarkably simple and often effective way of taking a spot-kick. Get it right and the deft shot will make you look like a genius who has outfoxed the helpless goalkeeper.

Get it wrong though and the ball will float into the arms of the 'keeper and the player looks rather foolish.

We've seen Zinedine Zidane use the technique in a World Cup final in 2006 while others like Lionel Messi, Francesco Totti, Andrea Pirlo, and Sergio Ramos have executed it to perfection in big moments.

But players like Gary Lineker have fluffed attempts, like his against Brazil in 1992, and it's remembered to this day.

Panenka was the man to first try it and gave his name to the technique.

In the 1976 European Championship final, 45 years ago today, the Czechoslovakia attacking midfielder stepped up to win the game in the shoot-out after the match finished 2-2 with West Germany after extra-time.

The sheer audacity of the goal sent shockwaves through the football community and his name remains synonymous with the penalty kick to this day.

talkSPORT's James Savundra tracked down the man himself on the 45th anniversary to find out exactly how it came about.

"I got the idea some two years before Euro 1976, I practiced it almost daily. Maybe four or five times a week at every training session," Panenka told talkSPORT.

"At the start, it was quite easy for me as nobody knew about this special penalty kick. Nobody expected it.

"It was easy to convert penalties with this now famous chip goal called Panenka. As time passed, it was more and more difficult for me.

"My psychological task was to get the goalie to think I would shoot the penalty kick in this normal way, not with this chip.

"This was the main task in the later stages of the development of the Panenka penalty kick, it was to make all goalkeepers think the penalty would be converted in the normal way.

"I didn't see it as a risk as the penalty was really well practiced by me before the tournament in Belgrade in Yugoslavia.

"I was really convinced I couldn't fail with this sort of penalty. I was convinced it would be okay to convert the penalty in the final against Germany."

Like it or loathe it, the Panenka penalty is here to stay and it will only be a matter of time before we see one at Euro 2020.

When asked about the reaction to it, Panenka added: "I think the majority of people like the penalty, but I did get some criticism when I did use it in the final in 1976. Even Sepp Maier, the German goalie, said I ridiculed him.

"It wasn't my task to make a clown out of him.

"For me, it was the effectiveness of the penalty which really paid off."

It was his penalty that delivered a famous win for his country in 1976 against a German team who had dominated world football.

But Panenka admits there was some regrets in his career having lived under the Communist regime.

"It's a big honour to have won the Euros from the sporting side," he added. "If you take it politically in hindsight, I would say we lived under the Communist regime and the conditions were not very convenient for selling our successes.

"Not only financially but also on the sporting field, like being able to play in Western clubs.

"It is a good feeling, but sometimes I do have some regrets that I lived in a different era."