Away Goals Rule

Misc

Details

Ref: Away Goals rule in two leg matches in Europe
aka: Away Goals Rule, away goals count double
Ended: June 2021
Defn: By the away goals rule, the team that has scored more goals “away from home” wins, if the total goals scored by each team are otherwise equal. This is sometimes expressed by saying that away goals “count double” in the event of a tie.

Summary[Untitled]

UEFA decided to scrap away goals in European competition from season 2021/22 much to the surprise of everyone, as few if any were calling for it to be scrapped.

As for Celtic, it has been a tough one to gauge whether it was a benefit or hindrance over all these years. Statisticians have argued both ways if the rule has been of any benefit at all in competition.

One case that can be made for Celtic is undoubtedly that Celtic gained from the ending of the away goals rule in that the club has a generally poor history in penalty kicks. Without the away goals, a cynic could argue that more opposition teams would have been happy to take Celtic all the way to penalties rather than just go for goals.

In the club’s competitive history in  Europe, there have actually been a number of instances of the Away Goals being in use that made the final decision, one of which is a bit hit & miss in Celtic’s favour:

    1. 1980: Celtic in the ECWC v Romania’s Politehnica Timisoara, and Celtic were out 2-2 in aggregate in only the first round.
    2. 1989: Celtic’s most dramatic two legged matches during the last century were against Partizan Belgrade, in the UEFA Cup.
      A 2-1 defeat away was followed by a very crazy 5-4 home victory for Celtic. Any other time that scoreline would be celebrated, but it saw Celtic knocked out 6-6 on aggregate of the UEFA Cup.
    3. 1997: Celtic were on a low ebb in Europe in the 1990s, and rarely lasted long in the competitions, another marker that highlighted the poverty of the First Team during this era.
      On being drawn v Liverpool in the ECWC, mostly pundits understandably wrote Celtic off.
      However, Celtic fought well and were put out of the competition on a 2-2 aggregate score, after a 2-2 draw at home and a 0-0 draw away.
      Steve McManaman scored possibly the best goal seen at Celtic Park ever by an away team.
    4. 2002: Celtic messed up badly in the Champions League qualifiers to squander a 3-1 first leg victory v Basle to lose on away goals after a 2-0 away loss in the second leg.
      The Silver Lining? It set Celtic up for the Road to Seville as Celtic went on to make the UEFA Cup final that season as Celtic were relegated to the UEFA Cup.
    5. 2002: On The Road to Seville (UEFA Cup run 2002/03) a 2-2 aggregate score v Celta Vigo saw Celtic squeeze through with an away goal by John Hartson, and head on in time towards the final.
      John Hartson in 2021 described that away goal as:
      “My most important goal in a Celtic shirt… a brilliant gritty result from the lads”.
    6. 2014: The most contentious & calamitous was undoubtedly that v Legia Warsaw in 2014.
      In the Champions League qualifiers in 2014, Celtic were hammered 4-1 by Legia Warsaw in the first leg, and then lost the return leg at home 2-0.
      A disaster BUT there was a shock saving grace.
      The second leg scoreline was reversed!
      Celtic were awarded a 3-0 by default after Legia were found to have played an ineligible player for 5 minutes at the end of the game!
      4-4 on aggregate, Celtic through on away goals.
      Legia Warsaw pulled a lot of strings but lost their appeals. Celtic then tripped up and lost the final play-offs to make the Champions League group stages.

Interesting experiences, and the end of this rule could change the way the game is played going forward.

Another interesting close call but didn’t come about was in 2006. Technically Celtic would have qualified ahead of Man Utd on away goals in the 2006-07 Champions League group stages, if both sides had finished on equal points. The head-to-head score was 3-3 (3-2 to Man Utd at Old Trafford, 1-0 to Celtic at Parkhead). It wasn’t to be as Celtic messed up in the last match to Copenhagen. It would have been Celtic’s first and to date only time that they have finished a Champions League group stage in the top spot.

As teams are now more international in composition and more used to travel, maybe playing away shouldn’t be as big an issue as before. Only time will tell.

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