Question Number: 23077

Other 4/7/2010

RE: Adult

Bernie Treptow of Caledon East, Ontario Canada asks...

Please explain the meaning of
winning on Aggregate
as it relates to UEFA Champion Leage games

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi Bernie
In the UEFA Champions League knockout phase the scores for both home and away games are added together to give an overall result. So lets say the first game was Red 0 - Blue 3 and the second game was Blue 1 - Red 2 then the aggregate score is Red 2 - Blue 4.
The UEFA Champions League operate a rule where in the event that the tie ends in a draw then the away goals scored by a team count double. If that does not decide the tie, extra time is played and then penalties if the scores are still tied.
In the Manchester United v Bayern Munich game the result was 4-4 on aggregate with 1-2 in the first game and 3-2 in the second. Bayern won the tie based on the fact that the team scored 2 away goals as opposed to 1 by United. That made the result 5 - 6 in favour of Bayern.

Answer provided by Referee Steve Montanino

Think of it as a play-off series. But instead of you having to win 4 out 7 games, you only play 2. Now, take those two games, and imagine each game is one-half of a giant 180-minute match. The funny thing is that they're still separate games, at least for the scoring, but at the end of both games, you add up each teams total number of goals. The team with the most goals is the winner.

Example:
Game 1: Team A (3) vs. Team B (1)
Game 2: Team B (2) vs. Team A (1)
Aggregate totals:
Team A (4) - advances on aggregate.
Team B (3)

If that is tied one of two things can break the tie.
1. The team scoring the greater number of goals AWAY from home advances. This is known as the 'away goals' rule.

Example (home listed first)
Game 1: Team C (4) vs. Team D (2)
Game 2: Team D (2) vs. Team C (0)
Aggregate:
Team C (4) has 0 away goals.
Team D (4) has 2 away goals.
Team D advances on away goals.

2. If neither team has scored more away goals than the other, then a 2x15-min extra time period will be played in full. If neither team wins after the 30 minutes, the advancing team is decided by kicks from the mark.

Answer provided by Referee Dennis Wickham

In the later rounds, teams play each other twice at each other's home field.

For example, Bayern M beat Manchester U in Germany, 2 to 1.
Manchester then beat Bayern in England, 3 to 2.

Who advances? The first tie breaker is to add the two scores. 'In the aggregate,' each team had 4 total goals in the two match series - and the next tie breaker had to be used. If Manchester had won the second match 3 to 1, it would have advanced because the combined scores would have been 4 to 3.

The next tie breaker is away goals. Bayern advances because it had two away goals, and Manchester only had one.