The Away Goal Rule: Yes or No?

[Vortep]

I kinda miss the Away goal rule. It made the homa/away games more important. Yes, sometimes one team qualify with all draws, but it just felt like taking the home game more seriously.

Do you miss the old rule, or you are ok with the new format?

 

[alex1992alex]

Its more ok this way, it was unffair with the away rule

 

[GStephens]

I preferred the away goals rule. It made games more interesting with more jeopardy.

 

[Suisse]

Exactly G Stephans , me too

 

[Iulian]

The away goal rule was often unfair.

UCL Semi-finals 2003:

AC Milan vs. Inter Milan

First Leg: AC Milan 0–0 Inter Milan
Second Leg: Inter Milan 1–1 AC Milan

Same venue, only one week apart. Milan went through on away goals, which obviously didn't make any sense.

Not to mention that some managers like Mourinho and Simeone built their European careers on scoring the minimum of away goals and go through on aggregate draws while displaying horrifically boring defensive strategies.

Lask Linz vs. Celtic this week was a good example of why the game is more fun (for the neutrals especially) without the away goals rule. Celtic scored first, and at that point Linz needed 4 goals to equalize on aggregate. With the away goal rule, they would have needed 5 to qualify and no chance of a draw + penalties. This small change, motivated them to press and actually score 5 goals, without worrying that if they conceded one they would have to score an extra 2.

 

[GStephens]

The away goal rule was often unfair.

UCL Semi-finals 2003:

AC Milan vs. Inter Milan

First Leg: AC Milan 0–0 Inter Milan
Second Leg: Inter Milan 1–1 AC Milan

Same venue, only one week apart. Milan went through on away goals, which obviously didn't make any sense.

I understand your point of view but in my opinion that isn't unfair. Obviously this particular case is really unusual because both teams share the San Siro, but the "home" team has more fans and so the atmosphere is more hostile to the "away" team. Both teams had an equal opportunity to score goals in the "easier" home fixture and "harder" away fixture. I personally think it is harder to score a goal away from home than at home so when games are level the team that scores more away should be rewarded more.

If a first leg finished 3-0 the tie was basically over. If it finished 3-1 then the other team only had to try and win 2-0 next time to progress. It kept the tie alive. The onus was on the team winning 3-1 to also score an away goal and cancel out that advantage. Now you get teams playing for a boring 0-0 away from home and hoping they will score more in front of their own supporters. I loved the away goals, I thought it was much more exciting even when my own team went out because of the rule, it just meant the other team was better at attacking in a difficult atmosphere than my one was unfortunately.

I totally understand if people didn't like it though.

Can we all agree that golden goal was a great idea for extra time? Instead of boring 30 minutes where nothing happens the game could be over immediately when someone scored. Fantastic