The Aggregate Score in Soccer: Why and When It Is Used
Association football — known across North America as soccer — has a language of its own. When you first start getting to grips with the game, you regularly come across words and phrases that would mean little to a non-football fan, from rules-based elements of the sport like 'offside' to more complex technical terms like 'counter-pressing', 'low block', or 'double pivot'.
These are all terms that relate to on-pitch tactics, but there are also various different terms that have been coined to describe how the game is officiated and how winners and losers are decided. In this article, we're going to be exploring one such phrase, as we dive deep into the precise meaning of aggregate in soccer. We'll explain why and when an aggregate in soccer is used and we'll detail some of the key competitions in which this aspect of the game is most relevant.
What Is An Aggregate Score In Soccer?
According to the official Cambridge Dictionary, the word aggregate means "something formed by adding together several amounts or things",with the dictionary giving the example sentence: "They purchased an aggregate of 3,000 shares in the company." At first glance this might not seem relevant to professional football, but in fact the word aggregate is used regularly at the very highest level of the game.
In football, an aggregate score is the combined number of goals scored by two teams over two or more games. For example, if Arsenal were to play two games against Chelsea, winning the first game 2-0 and drawing the second game 2-2, the aggregate score would be 4-2 to Arsenal.
Of course, aggregate scores don't always end up favouring one side; after two matches, the teams could still be level-pegging with an aggregate score of 3-3 (or 0-0 if it's a particularly dull head-to-head).
The phrase 'aggregate score' can sometimes be used to describe multiple league fixtures between the same teams. For example, after one of Liverpool's recent demolitions of Premier League rivals Manchester United, Sky Sports flashed a graphic showing that over the last 10 clashes between these two sides, Liverpool had smashed United with an aggregate score of 26-7. However, this is a fairly irregular use of the metric, used primarily for entertainment value; typically, aggregate scores in soccer are employed in much more specific situations.
When Are Aggregate Scores Used In Soccer?
The most common use of the aggregate score in football comes during knockout cup competitions. Aggregate scores are most meaningful and useful during these types of tournaments, when two teams are drawn against each other in a knockout tie where only one side can progress to the next round.
Often, these ties will be divided into two separate matches, referred to as 'legs'. Usually the first leg will be played at the home ground of one team and the second leg played at the home ground of their opponents, in order to make things as fair as possible. To that end, two-legged knockout ties always use an aggregate score to work out who has come on top over the two fixtures.
The reason for this is simple: if a team wins the first leg 1-0 but loses the second leg 4-0, each team has secured the same number of victories, but spread over the course of the whole tie there is a clear winner. Aggregate scores determine who that is and send that cumulative winner through to the next round of the cup competition.
Barcelona defeat Wolfsburg 𝟏𝟎-𝟐 on aggregate to reach the UWCL semifinals.
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 27, 2025
Eyes on the three-peat ✨ pic.twitter.com/Y7ntaGEQzt
Not all tournaments use aggregate scoring in the knockout stages, with most international tournaments opting for one winner-takes-all clash in each knockout round. However, several popular club competitions do use aggregate scoring including the UEFA Champions League, the UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Conference League, and the England's secondary domestic cup, the EFL Cup (although only in the semi-finals).
What Happens When The Aggregate Score Is Tied?
As previously mentioned, aggregate scoring isn't always effective when it comes to deciding the winner of a tie. Whether the aggregate score is 1-1, 2-2, or 5-5, it's fairly common for two teams to be level after the referee blows for full-time at the end of the second leg of the tie. When that happens, most competitions will ask that the two teams progress to extra time, followed by a penalty shootout to determine the winner if things are level after extra time.
However, over the years certain competitions have used different ways of deciding who should advance to the next round. For many years, the UEFA Champions League — viewed by many as the pinnacle of club football, featuring most of the world's most talented players, coaches, and teams — employed a different method to decide who should progress in the event of a tie after the end of the second match: the away goals rule.
What Is The Away Goals Rule?
The away goals rule has played a key role in the evolution of modern football, but it's no longer as common as it once was. Just like aggregate scoring, this rule relates specifically to knockout tournaments in which two teams play against each other twice over two legs.
You'll know by now that the major problem with aggregate scoring is that it can create a deadlock between two evenly-matched sides, with neither outfit capable of gaining an edge over the other during the course of two full 90-minute games. To break this deadlock, some competitions have utilised the away goals rule, a rule that predates the advent of the modern Champions League, having first been implemented by UEFA for the Cup Winners' Cup in 1965.
The away goals rule is a method of resolving a tiebreak in a two-legged clash. This rule states that if both sides have scored the same amount of goals having played each other twice, the team that has scored more goals away from home wins the tie. If the two teams have scored the same amount of away goals, the winner will be decided using an alternative method of tiebreaker, with games typically moving to extra time or penalties in this instance. However, if you've managed to score more away goals — for example, if you drew 0-0 in your home leg but then scored away from home in a 1-1 draw in the second leg — you'd progress to the next round having registered more goals away from home.
The reason for this rule is simple: it is widely recognised that playing away from home is more difficult than playing at home, due to the hostile crowd, the unfamiliar pitch conditions, and the small number of your own supporters permitted into the opponents' stadium. This is particularly true in European competitions that involve travelling across a continent to unfamiliar countries with different footballing cultures. As a result, managing to score a goal away from home is seen as an achievement worth rewarding.
When Is The Away Goals Rule Used?
For many years, the away goals rule was a key facet of the UEFA Champions League knockout stages. However, in June 2021 UEFA announced that this aspect of the competition would be changed from 2021/22 onwards; the UCL agreed with UEFA president Alexander Ceferin that "the impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams - especially in first legs - from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage. There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored." Consequently, the rule was scrapped.
When this decision was made by UEFA, it was replicated for Europe's secondary knockout club competition, the Europa League. Just like the Champions League, if the aggregate score is level at the end of a Europa League knockout second leg match, teams will now head straight to extra time and, if necessary, a penalty shootout — away goals count for nothing.
You can see why UEFA made this decision, but for many fans it was still a huge shame to see what was previously one of the most central elements of the Champions League knockout stages stripped away from the format. Now, the new league phase restructuring of the Champions League has transformed the tournament even further.
But plenty of supporters still miss the drama that the away goals rule created in the past. For example, there was the famous semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona in 2009 that saw a late equaliser from Andres Iniesta at Stamford Bridge clinch Barca a 1-1 draw and send them through to the final of the competition on away goals. More recently in 2017, an 18-year-old Kylian Mbappe helped dump Manchester City out of the Champoins League in similarly dramatic circumstances; City won their home tie 5-3 but after Monaco won the second leg 3-1 (creating an aggregate score of 6-6) the French outfit progressed to the next round due to the fact they had scored two more away goals than Guardiola's side.
If you want to find out more about the impact the away goals rule has had on elite level European club competition, check out our guide to how the away goals rule works.
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