THE Dutch don’t do penalty shoot-outs. Holland have one of the most consistent records in world football – from open play. From 12 yards they have the second worst in the world. (The worst? England, of course!)

“I don’t know why Holland can’t win in a penalty shoot-out,” said Dennis Bergkamp after his country converted just one in a Euro 2000 semi-final shoot-out against Italy.

“We practised penalties every day and this match shows that taking a penalty is always something special and that it’s not our forte,” added Frank Rijkaard.

Dirk Kuyt is Dutch. But that unique, nerve-shredding pressure from 12 yards is very much his forte.

And Sunday afternoon at Wembley was just the latest example of how Liverpool’s Carling Cup winner is a man for a crisis.

Kuyt regularly converts penalty kicks – and not any old kicks either.

A kick to complete a hat-trick in a 4-0 stroll is not the way Dirk does it.

His first for Liverpool came in the most pressurised environment imaginable.

If Kuyt could beat the considerable frame of Petr Cech from 12 yards, Liverpool were heading to a Champions League Final.

He did. Clinically.

With that in mind, Reds fans should have harboured few fears when Kuyt was handed the responsibility to win a Goodison derby match in 2007 . . . in the 92nd minute.

Kuyt had already converted one kick to equalise for the Reds, and proved just as nerveless with his late winner.

Given that outcome, it was curious that Kuyt then had to wait two-and-a-half years before being handed the responsibility from 12 yards again.

Once more it was a last-minute effort, and with Liverpool leading Tottenham 1-0 it was an opportunity to seal three points.

The outcome was never in doubt.

Kuyt has also converted Premier League penalty kicks against West Ham, Sunderland, Newcastle – and again against his old enemy Everton, when his 68th-minute effort earned a 2-2 draw last January.

Later in the same season Liverpool were handed the opportunity to snatch a draw in the 11th minute of time added on at The Emirates Stadium. There was only one candidate to take it.

Kuyt converted, of course.

The only time the Dutchman has been unsuccessful from 12 yards for the Reds was in this season’s Goodison derby, when Tim Howard made a stunning save from a well-struck shot – and Liverpool won anyway.

That miss clearly didn’t play on Kuyt’s mind.

After Steven Gerrard had seen his shot saved on Sunday and Charlie Adam watched his sail into the stratosphere, Kuyt crucially got Liverpool off the mark in the Wembley shoot-out.

“We keep believing,” said Kuyt. “I said to Steven, there’s a few more to take and others can miss and they did.

“I knew I had to score my penalty or else it was all over and that’s what I did.”

Dietmar Hamann found himself in a similar position three times for Liverpool – scoring in a Champions League final and an FA Cup final.

But then the Germans have a famous history of penalty taking efficiency – and he knows a good penalty taker when he sees one.

“Dirk Kuyt scored a very important penalty,” said Hamann. “Because if he had missed the game would have gone away from Lvierpool. That was another major contribution from Dirk Kuyt.

“If he hadn’t scored it would have been all over.

“I think he scores in big games. He’s not played all the games from the start this year but when he does come on he’s always a threat. He scored a very important winner against Manchester United in the FA Cup and he did the same thing at Wembley on Sunday.

“Dirk steps up on the big occasion and the big stage.”