World Cup extra time rules: How extra time, penalty shootouts and more work

The World Cup advancing to the knockout stages means one key distinction in how the games will be decided. While we saw plenty of tightly contested battles in the group stages end in a draw, that obviously can't be the case when it's win or go home, which is the case in the Round of 32 and onward. That means that a tie after the 90 minutes of regular time. However, it's not golden goal, like some soccer fans might remember. Instead, things will head to extra time and there are rules that fans watching the World Cup need to know.

With there being 20 draws in the group stages, we're likely to see several matches go into extra time in the knockout rounds. Anyone watching should be fully aware of what that's going to look like.

World Cup overtime rules: How extra time works in the knockout stages

• Extra time is 30 minutes in total, comprised of two 15-minutes halves with a brief break to switch sides in-between
• Each side receives an extra substitution for extra time play
• There is no golden goal
• There are no hydration breaks
• If tied after extra time, the match will be decided in a penalty shootout

If there is a tie in a World Cup group stage match after 90 minutes, we'll head to the 30-minute extra time period. That breaks down to a pair of 15-minute halves in which the two teams will switch sides and hydrate during a short respite between them. From there, it's just the same play that we saw in regulation of the match. There is no sudden-death golden goal component, as a team that concedes a goal will still have the chance to tie in the remaining extra time.

Should there be a tie still after the 30 minutes of play, that will lead to a penalty shootout that decides the match. That's high drama, but that also brings about another set of rules that soccer fans and viewers should be aware of with the stakes of the World Cup.

How a penalty shootout works in the World Cup

Should a match go through extra time and still be level, that will lead to a penalty shootout between the two sides. Initially, each team will select five players — all of whom had to be on the pitch at the end of extra time — to take alternating penalty shots. There are no rebound opportunities in a penalty shootout, differing from a penalty in normal play, meaning it's a true mano-y-mano situation between the penalty taker and the opposing goalkeeper.

In the scenario that the two teams are still tied after taking five penalty shots apiece, it will then go to sudden death penalties, essentially alternating until one team fails to score on their attempt. One key rule in this is that every player on the pitch, including the goalkeepers, must take a penalty before any player is allowed to make a second attempt. Simply put, each team has to go through all 11 players on the pitch before they can get their best five back up to the spot.

Was golden goal ever used in the World Cup?

Some soccer fans were a bit confused that golden goal is not used in the World Cup because of a memory of that happening previously. While it's been more than two decades, that is in fact not an example of the Mandela Effect. Golden goal rules were used in extra time for the World Cup — essentially meaning that any goal scored in extra time would end the match as a sudden-death type of format for the tiebreaker — in both the 1998 and 2002 tournaments.

However, FIFA and the governing soccer bodies at large elected to move away from the golden goal format after the 2002 World Cup, and we've not seen it sense. Given the split of the two 15-minute halves in extra time, the new format and extra time rules ultimately make much more sense.

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