Panna: Soccer technique, drills and fixes

A panna is the street-football name for a nutmeg: you play the ball through an opponent's legs to get past them. It is also the heart of panna knockout, a 1v1 cage game where a panna ends the match on the spot. You read an open stance, bait the legs apart with disguise, then push the ball through with just enough weight and burst around to collect it.

Set up

Read the stance. Look for a defender who is square-on to you, or who reaches or lunges a leg in for the ball. That is when the gap between their legs opens. A defender who stays side-on with one foot ahead of the other has the gap closed, so pick another move.

Watch their feet, not their face.

Stay just out of their reach. Keep the ball close and hold a distance where they cannot poke it away, so they have to step in to get it.

Out of range, ball on a string.

Bait the legs open. Sell something else first: fake a pass, fake a run down the line, or shift your weight one way. You want them to reach out a leg or widen their feet to stop it. Use a move they haven't seen from you yet.

Make them tackle.

Before you go, check there is space behind them and no second opponent close enough to pick the ball up.

Panna

Go the moment the gap opens. Slip the ball through with the inside or the outside of your foot. The outside works well when the defender is beside you and reaching across. If they stab a leg in front-on, take two small touches and play the second one through the legs.

A tap, not a kick.

Weight the touch. Push it gently but firmly enough to roll out the far side. Too hard and it runs away from you; too soft and it stops between their feet.

Just through, no further.

Burst around them, not into them. Accelerate hard for two or three metres as the ball goes through, run round the defender's side and collect it behind them.

Through, around, gone.

Collect it and keep going to put space between you and the defender. In a game the move only counts if you get the ball back. In panna knockout the ball going fully through the legs is the win, and you don't need to retrieve it.

Feel it

Patient, then sudden. You wait out of range while your fake does the work, the defender's leg reaches, and in one short moment the ball rolls through and you are already running round to meet it. If it gets blocked, the gap wasn't really open.

Fix-its

Their legs are never open They are side-on and staggered. Stay out of range and sell a pass or a run so they have to reach in, or beat them another way.
They close their legs and block it You went before the gap opened, or they saw it coming. Go on the reach, not before, and stop using the panna every time so they don't learn to keep their legs tight.
Ball runs away after it goes through Too much power. Play it just hard enough to get through, then sprint onto it.
You don't get the ball back You watched it go through instead of moving. Start your run as you touch it and go round the defender's side.
You force it and lose the ball Check the space behind them and the second defender first. If it isn't on, pass or use another move.

Drill

Warm up first. Set two cones as the defender's legs, with a gap the ball just fits through. Dribble in, tap the ball through the gap with the inside and then the outside of the foot, run round the cones and collect it. Both feet.
Passive partner: they stand still, sometimes square, sometimes side-on. Only play it through when the stance is open; otherwise beat them another way.
Reaching partner: they slowly reach a leg in for the ball. Practise the fake-pass bait and the two-touch version, then the burst round to collect.
Live 1v1 in a small area (panna-knockout style if you have a cage or a coned square). Goals count, a panna wins. Stop if you feel pain in a knee or ankle when bursting off.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-26.