Sepakan penalti diambil selepas sepakan percuma itu.

In Malay football language, ambil can be used the same way English uses take in phrases like take a penalty or take a free kick.

So:

• ambil = take
• diambil = is taken / was taken

The prefix di- makes the verb passive, so sepakan penalti diambil literally means the penalty kick is/was taken.

This is very natural in sports reporting and commentary.

Malay often uses the passive when the action is more important than the doer.

So in:

Sepakan penalti diambil selepas sepakan percuma itu.

the focus is on the penalty kick, not on who took it.

An active version would be something like:

Pemain itu mengambil sepakan penalti selepas sepakan percuma itu.
= The player took the penalty kick after that free kick.

If the person doing the action is unknown, obvious, or unimportant, Malay commonly leaves them out and uses the passive.

In Malay, demonstratives such as ini and itu usually come after the noun phrase, not before it.

So:

• sepakan percuma itu = that free kick
• bola itu = that ball
• pemain ini = this player

This is different from English, where this/that comes before the noun.

Malay does not always mark definiteness as clearly as English does.

So sepakan penalti can mean:

• a penalty kick
• the penalty kick

The exact meaning depends on context.

Meanwhile, sepakan percuma itu specifically means that free kick, because itu points to a particular one already known in the context.

If you wanted to say that penalty kick, you could say:

sepakan penalti itu

Selepas means after.

In this sentence, it introduces what happened earlier:

• selepas sepakan percuma itu = after that free kick

It can be followed by a noun phrase, as here, or by a clause.

Examples:

• selepas perlawanan = after the match
• selepas dia datang = after he came

So its use is quite similar to English after.

Sepakan is a noun formed from the verb sepak, which means to kick.

So:

• sepak = kick, as a verb
• sepakan = a kick, a kicking action

That is why:

• sepakan penalti = penalty kick
• sepakan percuma = free kick

A very common pattern in Malay is that a basic root becomes a noun with -an.

Malay usually puts the main noun first, followed by a word that describes or classifies it.

So:

• sepakan penalti = literally kick penalty
• sepakan percuma = literally kick free

This is normal Malay word order.

English often puts the modifier first:

• penalty kick
• free kick

Malay often does the reverse.

Malay verbs do not change form for tense the way English verbs do.

So diambil can mean:

• is taken
• was taken
• sometimes even will be taken, depending on context

The time is usually understood from the situation, surrounding sentences, or time words.

So this sentence by itself could be understood as either:

• The penalty kick is taken after that free kick or
• The penalty kick was taken after that free kick

In real context, one interpretation will usually be clear.

Yes. Percuma can mean free in the sense of no cost, but in set expressions it can also have other uses.

In football, sepakan percuma is the standard term for free kick.

So although percuma often means free, you should learn sepakan percuma as a fixed sports expression.

Yes. Malay word order is somewhat flexible, especially with time expressions or phrases like selepas ...

For example, you could also say:

Selepas sepakan percuma itu, sepakan penalti diambil.

This still means essentially the same thing:
After that free kick, the penalty kick was taken.

The original version is very natural, but this reordered version is also correct.

In Malay passive sentences, the agent is often omitted if it is not important or already understood.

So:

Sepakan penalti diambil
means The penalty kick is/was taken

If you want to mention the doer, you can add it, often with oleh:

Sepakan penalti diambil oleh pemain itu.
= The penalty kick was taken by that player.

But in many real sentences, Malay simply leaves the agent out.

Yes, depending on context.

In football English, people often shorten penalty kick to just penalty. So:

sepakan penalti

can be translated as:

• penalty kick
• penalty

The fuller, more literal translation is penalty kick, but normal English may prefer the shorter penalty if the context is clearly football.