The UEFA Champions League returns tonight with the knockout phase, starting from the Round of 16 stage as usual, and clubs will not have an away goal score worth double for the first time 62 years since the introduction of the double value rule.
Clubs competing in the Champions League and the Europa League will no longer have an away goal scored at the knockout phases count as double, following UEFA’s decision to abolish the rule. The European football governing body abolished the away-goal rule in June last year, and as a result clubs will have to adjust and work harder to have a superior real goal tally in order to progress over their opponents.
Following the removal of the away-goal rule, UEFA has ruled that when two times tie after the results of the second leg of the knockout game, the match will go to extra time and eventually decided penalties, rather than making clubs benefit from number of away goals scored.
The away-goal rule was introduced for the first time in the 1965/66 season, and has since been in existence till its cancellation in June last year.
