In the end, the Germans' eagerness to go on holiday changed history.
Their Euro 1976 final against Czechoslovakia was never meant to go to penalties.
West - defending European champions, reigning World Cup winners - were heavy favourites.
Even if Czechoslovakia held out through extra time, the initial plan had been for a replay two days later. Welsh referee Clive Thomas had been told to delay his return home from host nation Yugoslavia to cover the eventuality.
A few hours before the match though, the plan changed.
"It was a request from the German Football Association," re Antonin Panenka.
"They said that their players had already booked some holidays, blah, blah, blah, and asked if penalties could be taken straight away instead of a replay."
Czechoslovakia figured, as underdogs, they were more likely to prevail in a shoot-out than a second match, so they agreed.
Panenka, an elegant, ing playmaker, mentally checked his plan once more.
All was in order. No alteration necessary, no doubt itted.
A ploy two years in the making that would make him famous and infamous, a hero and an enemy - whether it succeeded or not - was ready.
Antonin Panenka played 59 times for Czechoslovakia, scoring 17 goals, and was named as part of Uefa's Team of the Tournament at Euro 1976
Back home, Panenka had been involved in another, almost daily, penalty contest.
After training at his Prague club side Bohemians, Panenka and goalkeeper Zdenek Hruska would stay behind to practise spot-kicks.
It was a very personal duel. Panenka would have five penalties - he would have to score all five, Hruska would have to save just one. Whoever lost would buy their post-training beer or chocolate.
"I was constantly paying him," says Panenka.
"So in the evenings I would think up ways to beat him - that's when I realised that as I ran up the goalkeeper would wait for the last second and then gamble, diving to the left or the right.
"I thought: 'What if I send the ball almost directly into the centre of the goal">