Goal Difference matters: A look at its importance in the new Champions League

FC Barcelona got a morale-boosting victory in their last night’s match against BSC Young Boys in the UEFA Champions League as they beat the visitors 5-0.

Robert Lewandowski scored another two goals in this match, while Raphinha and Inigo Martinez also had one goal each. Mohamed Ali Camara, one of the players of the Swiss side, scored an own goal to take Barcelona’s tally on the night to 5 goals.

While getting a single-goal win would have been enough to get the Blaugranes the full three points, scoring these five goals can still end up being important for them down the road.

As SPORT has explained, with the change in the format of the UEFA Champions League, the number of goals scored by a team has become much more important. In the older format, it was the head-to-head result obtained by two teams that held precedence over any other criteria as the tie-breaker when two teams were tied on points.

But in this new version of the UCL, there are several teams expected to be tied on points who will not even play against one another. Thus, UEFA has made a team’s goal difference the first criterion that will act as a tie-breaker between two teams having the same number of points.

Therefore, even if one team has defeated another during the league phase and both teams have the same number of points, the losing team can still advance to the next round if it possesses a superior goal difference.

Thus, the result last night did not only mean the three points for Barcelona but also provided the Blaugranes with a +4 goal difference. Borussia Dortmund is currently leading in this aspect with a +9 goal difference.

Furthermore, according to Article 18 of the UEFA Regulations, in addition to goal difference, other criteria such as the total number of goals scored, the number of away goals scored, and the number of wins will serve as tie-breakers if two teams have the same points and goal difference.