How do aggregate goals work

This gives each team the opportunity to face each other at their home stadiums, in front of their own fans. Home teams are often said to have a psychological advantage due to the fan support in-stadium. They would also have a physiological edge as they don't have to travel so far for the game. Deciding the result of the tie on just one match would heavily favour one team home team over the other away team.

Consequently , what seems to be the fairest way to split a tie is aggregating the score -- with both teams playing one home leg and one away leg each. While this may sound simple enough, things can get complicated when applying the the away goal rule. While the away goal rule isn't always applied — again, depending on the competition — it is still well worth understanding.

Away goals are those scored by the away or visiting team. In the away goal rule, these goals weigh more as these are often considered more difficult to score.

The rule helps determine the winner if the scoreline remains tied after two games, on aggregate -- without the need for a third game. Applying this rule means that the team who has scored the most away goals over the two games is the winner of the tie. This rule can make ties more dramatic as it can completely change the nature of the game. The rule also encourages the away team to be more aggressive and hunt for goals, as these may very well decide who makes it to the next round. This should also, theoretically , make for a more exciting game.

However , this rule has often seen home teams play more conservatively to avoid giving up all important away goals. While the rule helps make games more exciting, debates remain as to whether it is the fairest way to break a two-legged tie.

For example, UEFA has recently scrapped the rule for all its club competitions from the start of the season. The 32 teams compete in a double round-robin format called the group stage. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, the first round of the knockout phase. The teams are ranked by points. Three points are awarded for a win, one point is awarded for a tie and no points are awarded for a loss.

According to UEFA , if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied:. If after having applied criteria 1. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5. How does the knockout phase work? A draw takes place for the round of The 16 remaining clubs are split into two pots of eight, with one containing the winners of each respective group from the group stage and the other holding the runners-up.

A club is drawn from each pot to determine what the matchups would be, with the conditions that a winner and runner-up who played in the same group in the previous round cannot be drawn together again and that clubs from the same domestic league cannot play one another. The quarterfinal and semifinal draws do not have clubs split into separate pots. As a result, any remaining club can be drawn together regardless of whether or not they are a group winner or runner-up, played in the same one in the group stage or are clubs from the same domestic league.

As the draws for the quarterfinals and semifinals are held together before the quarterfinals are played, the identity of the quarterfinal winners is not known at the time of the semifinal draw. In this scenario, if the home team concedes a goal, they will have to score two in order to win the game. Essentially, the home team in the second leg is susceptible to being knocked out due to the away goal rule for minutes, while their opposition is only susceptible to this for 90 minutes in the first leg.

Ever since the away goal rule was introduced to European football, there have been several games that have been decided in rather dramatic fashion as a result of it. They absolutely dominated Manchester United at Old Trafford during their away match. Nobody in their right mind would have bet on a United victory, going into the second leg. The second leg of this cup tie proved to be one of the best Manchester United performances of the season. When Barcelona beats you by 4 goals to 1 in any competition, you might as well call it quits in the vast majority of situations.

However, I guess Roma had other ideas. A win at their home stadium in the second leg of this cup tie proved to be all that was required to cause a HUGE upset.

What do you think? In this match, despite the score being on aggregate, Roma won because they scored more away goals than Barcelona during the cup tie. Second leg: PSG away Chelsea home - after normal time, after extra time. David Luiz swiftly cancelled this goal out with a sublime header, making the score line Understandably, this raised questions over whether the away goal rule was actually a fair method of breaking ties when games go to extra time.

And they really did put up an incredible performance. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Already subscribed? Log in. Forgotten your password? Want an ad-free experience?