We have to go back to the 2003/04 Champions League season to look for quarter-finals as high scorers as this season’s, with 32 goals. Then 30 goals were scored and it was the record of the competition since it changed from the European Cup to the current format, 21 years ago, and almost a third of them were scored in the tie between the Milan and the Deportivo: 4-1 in the first leg and 4-0 in the second leg.
“I tried to convince my players that Milan was not that great of a team and that it was an accident in the first leg. And in the second game they came out like crazy.” Speaks Javier Irureta, who was the coach of Deportivo, protagonist of one of the greatest feats in the continental competition. “We were lucky to score early and not concede,” adds Irureta.
Then the rule of double value of goals in case of a tie and away from home was in force. A rule that allows Depor to pass with a 3-0, but the Galician team decided to ensure the pass with the fourth goal, the work of Fran. That rule was established by UEFA in 1965 and has been the result of heated debate in recent years until it was withdrawn three seasons ago.
“The impact of the rule now goes against its original purpose, as it now deters home teams, especially in first legs, from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their rivals a crucial advantage for the match.” back,” explained the president of the highest European football body, Alexander Ceferinto justify the withdrawal.
UEFA had been observing that the statistics from the mid-1970s to the current era showed a reduction in home wins (from 61% to 47%) and an increase in away wins (from 19% to 30%). . The average number of goals per game scored in one’s own field also changed (from 2.02 to 1.58) and in another’s field (from 0.95 to 1.15).
“Now, each match starts from scratch, there is less speculation about the result, he says Antonio Nezchampion of the Champions League with Liverpool in the 2004/05 season. The former soccer player believes that that rule was quite conditioning and that there was a greater tendency to “keep what you had.”
In his opinion, “football is fairer”, as he himself also expressed. Ceferin regarding the disadvantage of conceding a goal in extra time and being forced to score two. “Sometimes the tie breaks down and you already knew that extra time was impossible, so that takes away all the emotion,” explains the man from Madrid.
Withdrawal and change
It has taken almost three years, since the rule was withdrawn in 2021/22, to appreciate the first results of this change, since 23 goals were scored that year and 20 last year. With these 32 the best mark is established history, leaving the 30 of 2003/04 in second place and in third place, tied, the 1999/2000 and 2008/09 seasons, with 28. “The 3-3 at Bernabu was a bad score, but it is difficult to choose the style of play to obtain the result you want”, points out Irureta.
It is true that a good laboratory year was the Champions of the pandemic. The one that had its final phase in Lisbon in 2020 and was played in a single match. 20 goals were scored in four games, with an average of five per game. In the current campaign there have been four. Those four goals per game in the quarterfinal phase had only been exceeded on five occasions, all in the old European Cup format and always before the double value of the goals in the opponent’s field.
We can talk about more offensive football. In the eight teams that reached this phase were the three best players in the world and technicians with an offensive style. But this change in regulations, without a doubt, influences and improves competition.