UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TODAY This week, it is not just two of the highest-quality teams in Europe that Manchester City and Arsenal must overcome. It is also 58 years of European Cup history. In all that time, there have been only six occasions when a side have still gone through a tie after losing the first leg at home: - 1955-56: Milan lose 4-3 to Saarbrucken at home but win 4-1 away - 1968-69: Ajax lose 3-1 to Benfica at home but win 3-1 away and then win playoff - 1979-80: Forest lose 1-0 to Dynamo Berlin at City Ground but then win 3-1 away - 1993-94: Steaua Bucharest lose 2-1 at home but then beat Croatia Zagreb 3-2 away - 1995-96: Ajax lose home semifinal to Panathinaikos 1-0 but win 3-0 away - 2010-11: Inter Milan lose 1-0 at home to Bayern Munich but win the return 3-2 It’s a remarkably small number, and the overall trend thereby seems almost a bulletproof result that has become especially relevant for this round. Of the eight ties to be completed over the next nine days, six see the side that were initially away from home lead. To put that into some kind of context, the last 16 has never produced a ratio like that. The average is around 2.3 away wins for that stage, and there have never been more than four since the competition’s restructuring in 2003. It is also the deeper context, however, which makes this entire quirk so curious. Quite simply, it feels like an anachronism, that it should be no longer be happening. For much of the competition’s history, it was completely comprehensible -- certainly in those first 14 years up to 1969 when it happened only once. Former France manager and Stade Reims European Cup finalist Michel Hidalgo has described the disconcerting nature of even travelling away from home around that time. “It seemed unreal, an unbelievable adventure,” he said. “I had never even flown before, so taking a plane to these exotic places to play football matches was just surreal. Luckily, alongside me were experienced players who’d been abroad for international matches. But this was a new world. We weren’t used to travelling like people today. “It was in the days before wall-to-wall coverage of football. You came up against players you’d never seen in your life. You had no idea who played where or how. You were learning about your opponents as you played them. If you were lucky, someone from the club had gone over to watch a game before you got round to playing them, but that was about it. It was exciting for the players as well as the fans.” Given that kind of viewpoint, it is easier to understand why a first-leg home defeat would have been so crushing. It is also no surprise that the majority of those six who overcame such a result were on their way to the final, or were defending champions. Many teams would have seen their home form as a key advantage going into a tie, only to have it immediately taken away, then forced to travel to a club they knew only from that perception-realigning first leg. That mindset conditioned the increase of dismally cautious performances, and was part of the reason UEFA introduced the away-goals rule in the late 60s in order to open the competition up again. The law retained much of its power until the mid-90s, just before Mr. Bosman forced UEFA to open up the game again in a very different way (in the transfer market). Around that time, the backdrop to many of the biggest ties was over the away goal, and there was an unmistakable sense of the most lethal teams suddenly being capable of killing a tie off. It was arguably one of the reasons why European football seemed to make the differences so vast between sides, because some were simply mature enough and commanding enough to properly go for a game in the away leg. Learning that kind of nous was a key step in the evolution of many champions. The prospect of an away goal carried an undeniable psychological weight that savvier teams were simply better able to handle. Yet now, as debate grows about whether the away goals should be abolished, and the frequency of the Champions League has statistically lessened the value of playing at home, it feels like that should not be so relevant. AllsportPSG are on the cusp of the Champions League quarterfinals after destroying Bayer Leverkusen. Certainly, the sheer amount of away wins in this round seems to be a result of more modern issues. On the one side, there is the disparity between the super clubs and the rest, meaning Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain could travel to Zenit St Petersburg and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively, and simply swat them away. On the other, there is the way the super clubs more regularly meet and so often play teams of a similar level. For all Barcelona’s greater history in the competition, their victory at Manchester City did not quite feel like one of those old games when their experience proved more exacting. It was quite a finely poised game -- in terms of tactics and chances, if not possession -- until the kind of moment happened that swings so many more mundane matches. This was just two gigantic sides going at each other, and not being especially bothered about where they were playing. Arsenal’s defeat to Bayern Munich had similar incidents (on the red-card front at least), but also the added fact that the German side are now simply so outstanding. In his news conference ahead of the second leg in Munich, however, Arsene Wenger wasn’t fazed by any of that. “We scored two goals in the last five minutes against Everton [on Saturday, in the FA Cup win] so we dont have to be nervous,” he said. “We can be patient. Bayern have confidence because they are doing well but we have a great opportunity to do it. I am absolutely confident that, mentally, we will be ready to play at our best.” This is now the other side of it. With the top teams so used to playing each other, and not cowed by going on the road -- as Arsenal proved in last year’s second leg at Bayern -- might we finally see that surprising stat overturned? If it is to do with psychology, after all, consider the effect an early away goal could have. “One-nil to us makes the game or the result absolutely possible,” Wenger added. All of a sudden, the entire dynamic is changed.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:08:25 +0000
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