I believe I grew up in the best years of the champions league. Who can forget the Valencia team with Speedy Gonzalez, Redondo's Real Madrid. Those nights were amazing and the football took your breath away. The one thing that stood out was the second leg of each tie you knew the home team would always turn the tie around even if they had lost the first tie significantly.
Now I am starting to wonder if playing at home first is an advantage from a football point of view. The logic of the second leg at home is purely based on the atmosphere and how it affects the opposition. But from a football point of view, in the last 5-8 years its never been easier to adapt away tactics to beat a superior home team on the counter.
We have seen how away tactics have created a huge slant in gambling as there are a few home banker's and I feel in a 2 legged tie, The team that plays home first has a huge advantage as the opposition tend to come with a damage limitation attitude.
Twice City have failed to recover from 1st leg deficits even though they knew what they needed to do. The away goal plays a role but its the mindset that is difficult to control in these 2 legged ties. Okay Barca have been the masters of overturning any 1st leg deficit but is it the Nou camp effect or is it the impact of having top players rectifying a first leg mistake?
The United PSG game is another example of the 2nd leg and how it mind facks players and supporters. In essence the 1-0 advantage by Spurs in the first leg is not a huge advantage but look how City just looked at a disadvantage from the time Son scores a deflected goal. Again City tonight, KDB destroyed Spurs, Sterling stepped up.Aguero was so so but ultimately they have lost the tie because of Laporte's mistakes. If he looks back he will be sick as he has gifted Spurs 2 goals and probably pushed Llorente's hip onto the third. My point is you almost need the perfect performance to overturn a first leg deficit which is why I am questioning the advantage of playing the second leg at home.
Will test this theory in the semi finals where I believe all ties are 50/50 in my opinion. When the draw was made I felt Liverpool would beat Barcelona easily but now I'm not so sure. Barca have almost won laliga & will probably rest players for both ties and wrap Messi in cotton wool.The thing with Messi its not about him scoring, its how the other players benefit from him being marked by 2 or 3 players as we saw at Wembley as he destroyed Spurs.Barca have good players, Suarez and Coutinho will be keen and Dembele is back.Its an extremely tough tie for Liverpool and if they dont play well in the first leg then the tie could be over.
Liverpool got to the final last season by ending the ties in the first leg against City then Roma as we saw Roma out played them in the second leg but lost the tie. Roma to their credit did the same thing against Barca & Messi. Spurs have benefited from having the first leg at home in my opinion as they will push to end the tie against what could be a nervy Ajax.
Maybe Liverpools improved defence will give them an advantage at the Nou camp. They are a better team than Barca as I dont rate the Barca manager at all but Barca have good players and if they end the tie in the first leg Anfield and its atmposhere cant change a thing in the 2nd leg.Then again if you look at Barca's home record in the champions League (Overturning a 4 goal deficit ) maybe Liverpool benefit this time. Lets see how the semi's play out.
CL-1st Leg at Home Advantage
posted on 18/4/19
comment by TOORSpursFan (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 30 minutes ago
Away goals are a really poor rule imo. Use the spurs qualification as an example, neither side went to defend in either leg, that game deserves extra time.
It kills the second leg too early at times.
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I do agree, however the alternative is City get to have the extra time in their home stadium, which gives them an advantage.
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It isn't the best example but look at, say, the Juve game. Once Ajax went 2-1 it's game over, there are many examples of this tbh.
I think we are all for excitement and the away goal rule doesn't provide that for the best part.
posted on 18/4/19
I agree. However what is the alternative? At the moment, away goals are an advantage to my club as we are the perfect set up to defend but still be a massive threat on the counter, away from home but I have never been a massive fan of them. I just don't see a better alternative. A third game in an already hectic schedule at a neutral venue? Extra time favouring the home side? Extra time in a neutral venue? I just can't think of anything better. They have tried golden goals, straight penalties etc and nothing has replaced away goals in the long run.
posted on 18/4/19
On the OP, I’ve always felt that being at home first is vastly underrated. Even if you draw 0-0, you can go through with a draw while your opponents must win. If you win by a goal or two without conceding, you’re in the driving seat. First legs tend to be cagier; if you’re away in the second, I think you’re more likely to get chances for away goals - and when you get them, they’re more likely to be fatal to the other team as they can’t get any more of their own. Awful feeling for City last night - once Spurs got one, they knew even a win might not be enough, and of course Spurs kept scoring.
Still fancied City though, right till the end.
posted on 18/4/19
comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 24 minutes ago
On the OP, I’ve always felt that being at home first is vastly underrated. Even if you draw 0-0, you can go through with a draw while your opponents must win. If you win by a goal or two without conceding, you’re in the driving seat. First legs tend to be cagier; if you’re away in the second, I think you’re more likely to get chances for away goals - and when you get them, they’re more likely to be fatal to the other team as they can’t get any more of their own. Awful feeling for City last night - once Spurs got one, they knew even a win might not be enough, and of course Spurs kept scoring.
Still fancied City though, right till the end.
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This
There is definitely an imbalance but what can you do.No way to level this in my opinion.
posted on 18/4/19
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
comment by TOORSpursFan (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 30 minutes ago
Away goals are a really poor rule imo. Use the spurs qualification as an example, neither side went to defend in either leg, that game deserves extra time.
It kills the second leg too early at times.
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I do agree, however the alternative is City get to have the extra time in their home stadium, which gives them an advantage.
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It isn't the best example but look at, say, the Juve game. Once Ajax went 2-1 it's game over, there are many examples of this tbh.
I think we are all for excitement and the away goal rule doesn't provide that for the best part.
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Disagree! Juve should have been more than capable of scoring 2 goals in around 20 minutes against Ajax at home.
Look at City yesterday at 1-2, needing 3 goals. they'd scored all 3 of them by midway through the 2nd half.
Or even Utd away at Paris. Get an early goal which is great so they only need one more to even it up, then PSG score which might have deflated them because they now need 2 again, but they got them.
posted on 18/4/19
I expect Liverpool to destroy Barcelona, as they have far more potent attacking tools at their disposal
posted on 18/4/19
comment by SpursBoy101 (U21819)
posted 39 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
comment by TOORSpursFan (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 30 minutes ago
Away goals are a really poor rule imo. Use the spurs qualification as an example, neither side went to defend in either leg, that game deserves extra time.
It kills the second leg too early at times.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I do agree, however the alternative is City get to have the extra time in their home stadium, which gives them an advantage.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It isn't the best example but look at, say, the Juve game. Once Ajax went 2-1 it's game over, there are many examples of this tbh.
I think we are all for excitement and the away goal rule doesn't provide that for the best part.
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Disagree! Juve should have been more than capable of scoring 2 goals in around 20 minutes against Ajax at home.
Look at City yesterday at 1-2, needing 3 goals. they'd scored all 3 of them by midway through the 2nd half.
Or even Utd away at Paris. Get an early goal which is great so they only need one more to even it up, then PSG score which might have deflated them because they now need 2 again, but they got them.
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Its not that easy no matter how good a team is to get a number of goals in a short space of time.These are the later stages of the champions league.
Juve have not played well at all this season, cant compare them to City.
posted on 18/4/19
I don't really think there's an argument here, although it's an interesting discussion. It may be stating the obvious, but it doesn't matter if you play home or away first if you don't perform in that game. Away goals matter so much that if you go away first and don't score, losing 1-0 or 2-0 or something, then you're more than likely f*cked. I remember when Arsenal played United in the semi in 2009 and lost 1-0 away in the first leg. I went to the home leg and there was just this feeling that we stood no chance, even though all we needed was 1 goal to be back in business. Turned out we were right too... (Actually in hindsight maybe a lot of that feeling came about because we never could beat United around that time)
Over the course of the history of the competition the best teams tend to get the furthest and more often than not win it, regardless of who played home/away fixtures in what order. There are freak results and even whole years occasionally but generally dat how it go.
posted on 18/4/19
comment by The Tuesday Club🍷🍻🍹🍸 (U14109)
posted 7 hours, 54 minutes ago
2nd leg has potentially an extra 30 mins depending on the aggregate score though so you could argue that the 2nd leg at home (with a perceived advantage) could be better.
Away goals are absolutely key though regardless of order of legs.
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This is another argument for scrapping the away goals rule though, the team playing away from home gets an extra 30 minutes to find one, an advantage obviously not afforded to the away team in the first leg.
Personally, I'd scrap both away goals and extra time, they both do my head in.
posted on 18/4/19
comment by TOORSpursFan (U1721)
posted 7 hours, 5 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 30 minutes ago
Away goals are a really poor rule imo. Use the spurs qualification as an example, neither side went to defend in either leg, that game deserves extra time.
It kills the second leg too early at times.
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I do agree, however the alternative is City get to have the extra time in their home stadium, which gives them an advantage.
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Hmm not really, because we would've had an extra thirty minutes to get an away goal.