The Evolution of the UEFA Away Goals Rule: A Look Back at Its Impact

On the evening of March 25, 1965, Ron Yeats and Wolfgang Overath, captains of Liverpool and FC Cologne respectively, walked towards the central circle of the Stadion Feyenoord accompanied by Robert Schaut, the Belgian referee of what should have been the match decisive in their European Cup quarter-final. But, for the third time in a row, the two teams could not decide between themselves. The support match organized by UEFA after the first two matches had ended 0-0 had returned an identical verdict: a draw, 2-2 this time.

Including extra time, the two clubs had played 300 minutes of play without managing to make a difference. The UEFA regulations provided that in such a case, a draw would be carried out. A coin would decide who Helenio Herrera’s Inter would face in the semi-final of the competition. Ron Yeats chose ‘tails’, but the coin did not fall perfectly level on the lawn. Mr. Schaut, to whom Yeats pointed this out, shared this opinion and launched it a second time. She fell on the side chosen by the Reds defender. Liverpool were in the semi-final, the cruelest part being that if Mr Schaut had not been of the same opinion as Yeats, it was Cologne who would have faced Inter. The coin had indeed fallen on the “tails” side – the one chosen by Overath – the first time.

Obviously, it was necessary to find an alternative to chance, and this is how UEFA came to adopt the rule that from the 1965-66 season, in the event of a perfect tie in the home and away matches , it is the number of away goals that would be the determining factor. The team that scored the most would qualify for the next round.

“We have to go with the Mbappé – Dembélé – Barcola trio for PSG”

It was also a way of combating the excessive advantage that being the host of a match then constituted, and of encouraging the visiting teams to be more enterprising, at least in theory and, from this point of view , the new regulations helped to level the playing field. A statistical study of results recorded in UEFA competitions from the 1970s to the 2010s showed that the percentage of victories and goals scored in favor of the home teams had fallen from 61 to 47% and from 2.02 to 1, 58 goals per match, while away teams saw their chances of success away from home rise from 19 to 30% and from 0.95 to 1.15 per match.

When a 0-0 at home became acceptable

Mission accomplished, then? Not really, if only in terms of sporting fairness, which would dictate that one goal should never be worth more than another goal. As this was no longer the case, this is how we saw Milan qualify for the final of the 2002-2003 Champions League at the expense of Inter after two matches which ended 0-0 and 1-1. Inter hosted the rossoneri in the return match, and Andrey Shevchenko scored ‘away’. The problem being that the two matches were played in the same stadium, since the clubs in question had San Siro as their home.

The advantage given to the visitors before the kick-off of their matches also had a perverse effect which became more pronounced over the years. 0-0 at home became an acceptable score, since it would be enough to score and not lose in the second leg to qualify. The rule perhaps encouraged visitors to dare a little more. Maybe. What was certain was that above all she encouraged the guests to be much more careful. As Sir Alex Ferguson (not really a fan of catenaccio) later recounted, “from a personal point of view, when we were playing [à Old Trafford]I used to say to myself: ‘let’s not concede a goal’.

I remember a breathtaking C1 quarter-final return between the ‘Invincibles’ of Arsenal and Claudio Ranieri’s Chelsea in the spring of 2004 which remains for me the most glaring example of the psychological impact of the rules of “goals scored away which count double” (an inaccurate expression, of course, but revealing of the way in which everyone, fans, players, technicians, perceived the advantage they represented). The Gunners, who returned from Stamford Bridge with a 1-1 draw in the first leg, led 1-0 at the break in front of their Highbury crowd, thanks to a goal from José-Antonio Reyes scored in added time after forty -five minutes of dreaming. The door to the semi-finals was wide open for them. But that was without taking into account Frank Lampard, who equalized in the 51st minute. The match then changed, for this simple reason: Chelsea score again, and Arsenal should strike twice.

Have Barça been underestimated? “His season is anything but linear”

A rare rear machine

I then felt fear grip an entire stadium, including the players in red, while Chelsea immediately found new strength. The winning goal, scored by Wayne Bridge in the 81st minute, surprised no one, and the match could have ended there. It will be said that Arsenal were incapable of meeting this challenge. But was this challenge even necessary? Its basis remained that some goals were worth more than others, including in extra time, which should be anathema; and which was for almost all the technicians interviewed by UEFA when the subject was put on the table by the body in 2014.

It is extremely rare for an organization of this type to backtrack. We cannot imagine for a single second Gianni Infantino’s FIFA suggesting reducing the number of teams qualified for the World Cup to 24 or 32 from 2034, when 48 nations will battle it out in Saudi Arabia, even if there would be no shortage of arguments not to justify it. So it took seven years for UEFA to get rid of a rule that was never more than a stopgap, at best, and distorted its competitions for more than five decades.

Her supporters will say that we would never have experienced Tottenham’s incredible qualification for the 2018-19 Champions League final – Lucas Moura’s hat-trick in Amsterdam – without her. That’s right. We would have been entitled to an extension, the two teams being tied 3-3 over the two legs, or even a penalty shootout. How awful. So, good riddance. And for anyone who thinks that the abolition of the away goals rule would have resulted in more timid teams during major competitions, a number: 18. This is the number of goals scored during the quarter-final first legs of this Champions League 2023-24, a record at this stage of the competition since 1957

. Nine had been registered outside.

They will count. But no more than they should count.

2024-04-15 18:04:00
#European #Cups #goals #rule #injustice