The away goals rule divides opinion among people in football.
Introduced to provide a form of balance to teams traveling to far flung places for away fixtures – taking into account the distance travelled, quality of pitches and unfamiliarity with pitches abroad – the rule was conceived to encourage away teams to attack when not playing at home.
Fast forward a few decades though and both football and the world has changed considerably. Travel is now much more convenient than it was years ago, with players travelling in luxury to European games away. The quality of pitches, too, is at a different level to the past, with pretty much every surface as good as any other, regardless of location.
It’s because of these developments that some people believe the rule should go by the wayside.
Regardless of your position on away goals, we can all agree that a crucial part of the conversation is actually understanding how it works.
This was an issue for a Liverpool fan who this week contacted a radio station to discuss the Reds’ Champions League tie with Bayern Munich.
Steven, the Reds supporter in question, had called up talkSPORT’s Sports Bar with Andy Goldstein and Jason Cundy to discuss the second leg of their Champions League second round. Here is what he said.
“Will we go through? Well, you know, a draw will do us in, err, Munich and we’ll go through. So, we don’t need to win,” he said, making sense so far.
“We can just draw – if we score a goal they need to score one, or two. So, y’know, remember one thing Andy: away goals count double.”
Hmmm, okay. We’ve got a problem here. You see, ‘away goals count double’ is a popular trope in football, with a degree of reason behind it.
Scoring one away goal means that your hosts must score twice to win outright, with a draw putting the scorers of the away goal through. But, they don’t literally count double, as was kindly explained to the fan.
He went on: “So if we score a goal in Munich they’ll have to score two. If we score two, they’ll have to score four. So, err, you have to remember that we’re still in a very good position.”
It was at this moment that Goldstein struggled to contain how funny he found the situation, as he attempted to stifle laughter while explaining how away goals actually work.
“I think three, I think three Steve. Steve, I think if you score two away goals they’ll only need to get three,” he said, at this stage not even trying to hide his laughter.
“I mean, it’s not… it’s not actually double. You know it’s not actually. Like if you score three away goals, they don’t have to score six.”
Once again, hysterics towards poor Liverpool fan Steve.
At this stage, the entire thing had broken down considerably, and it was unclear whether Steve was even still on the line, before he popped up with one final “Andy” and slipped off the line.
📞 Caller: “If we score two, Bayern need four. Away goals counts double.”
🗣 @AndyGoldstein05: “They’d need 3… you know it’s not actually double?”
📞 Caller: “….”
Steven the #LFC fan had a mare when he caller the Sports Bar last night 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/Dq29U8CLHu
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) February 20, 2019
