Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
For as long as there has been a UEFA Champions League, it's been much more than a football tournament. It is about goals, glorious comebacks and each team's top players battling for European glory.. The away goals rule used to be one of the most influential aspects of that drama. However, if you have just watched the slowly unfolding competition and thought to yourself, "Do away goals still count in the Champions League" - the short answer is no. What changed and how that affected the modern game? Keep reading and let's explore more.
Since ages that rule has been part of UEFA competitions. Introduced in 1965 to give teams knocked out of two legged knockout rounds a reward for scoring on the road. It was a method of encouraging away goals and rewarding footballers for scoring outside their stadiums. If the score levelled up between the two matches, it would be decided by the team to have scored more away goals.
However, this rule was abolished by UEFA in June 2021 and will be used in the 2021–22 season. This was applied to the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League for all UEFA club competitions.
The rationale? It was because UEFA argued that the reason for the rule - to play attacking football on the road - was no longer relevant in today's game. The rule had become anachronistic, given advances in travel, travel, stadium conditions and so on.
Football has gone a long way in a very short span. Better travel conditions, more standardized stadium environments and even technology like VAR have softened the once unthinkable task of playing away.
Additionally, UEFA also discovered that sometimes this rule prompted home teams to withdraw in the first leg and put a bit more pressure on the first leg to be safe from conceding an away goal.
Ties in recent Champions League seasons before the rule change were being settled in almost every case by away goals rather than open play. For instance, in the 2018–19 round of 16 from Manchester United's point of view, they progressed simply because they had scored more away goals, when the overall tie finished 3 to 3.
So, do away goals still count in the Champions League? No, they don't - not even as a tiebreaker.
If a two-legged tie ends level on aggregate, the match moves to 30 minutes of extra time. Should the score remain tied after that, a penalty shootout decides the winner. The number of away goals scored is now irrelevant. What matters is who scores more, either in extra time or from the spot.
This shift has brought a new sense of balance to knockout fixtures. Teams now approach second legs with fewer defensive tactics, especially at home, making the contests more unpredictable - and more engaging for fans and sports bettors alike. Canadian supporters, closely following national talents like Alphonso Davies or Jonathan David in Europe's biggest competition, have embraced this new rhythm both on the pitch and in how they engage with it off the pitch, including betting and fantasy play.
As part of that shift, there's also been a quiet evolution in how fans interact with betting and gaming platforms. In Canada and across Europe, preferences in payment methods have grown more regional. While Mastercard and VISA remain widely used, many Canadian players are just as likely to gravitate toward local options - InstaDebit casinos, for instance, now sit naturally alongside their international counterparts in everyday usage, especially during high-profile events such as the Champions League playoffs.
To sum it up, here's how the new Champions League tiebreak format works:
UEFA feels this is a fairer method of determining the winner.
With the old rule broken, tactics and psychology in both home and away legs now mean the same. It has indeed changed how teams have approached the first and second leg.
Just in the 2022–23 season, in many of what previously would have been decided on away goals - Bayern Munich vs. PSG, Chelsea vs. Real Madrid, for example - the matches were decided on penalties after an extra time. The new dynamic often comes down to more nail biting finishes and less 'parking the bus.'
Since the rule change, there has already been an uptick in extra time and shootouts, and on a statistical basis, at least. While some purists cry foul over the loss of a traditional rule, most of those fans are thrilled with the extra fairness.
For the sake of our key question: Do away goals count for double in Champions League? No, they don't. Not anymore. Goals away from home count for nothing. The total score is all that matters now.
Online gaming is intersecting more and more with football. Top Canadian platforms are coming out with football themed online slots, sports themed casino bonuses and such as Champions League promotions. If you are interested in sites offering secure payment options, huge slot library and even games related to UEFA, then you should have a look at footballgroundmap.com website to stay up to date.
With the elimination of the away goals rule, however, we now know knockouts in the Champions League in a completely different way. There is no longer the notion of a goal scored in hostile territory being worth twice the points. But that loss of nostalgia is featured and the new rules focus on fairness and strategy in real time.
So, to recap:
It has made the matches more competitive, the results fairer and a more enticing display for the fans, a win for both.
The 91 biggest football stadiums in Europe. From Manchester to Munich, Villa Park to Valencia - each one with a capacity over 40,000
All good things have to come to an end, and the same unfortunately has to be said for football stadiums too. This article looks at the grounds which are soon to host their last match, the stadiums whose days are numbered and where fans will be watching their football from next.
An in-depth look at the biggest football attendances ever recorded, from the 1950 World Cup to pre-season friendlies in the States and the Scottish ground with dozens of 100,000+ attendances
My daughter's first ever football match - Orlando City v Atlanta United, August 2019. Written for Izzy to read when she gets old enough. Vamos Orlando
