Chelsea news from football.london brings details of the away goals rule ahead of the Champions League quarter final against Real Madrid as Frank Lampard's side return to action
Chelsea are back in action on Wednesday when they play Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
The Champions League has been whittled down to the final eight teams with Benfica taking on Inter at Estadio da Luz and Manchester City hosting Bayern Munich. AC Milan welcome Napoli in an all-Serie A tie and Chelsea travel to the Santiago Bernabeu for their date with Real.
This year's edition of the Champions League has no away goals rule after the decision to do away with them in June 2021. UEFA wanted to make sure games were more open and take away a rule that supposedly stopped home teams from attacking for fear of conceding a potentially crucial away goal.
Away goals acted as a tiebreaker if aggregate scores of games finished level. "Although there was no unanimity of views, many coaches, fans and other football stakeholders have questioned its fairness and have expressed a preference for the rule to be abolished," UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin
"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."
"It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was. "Taking into consideration the consistency across Europe in terms of styles of play, and many different factors which have led to a decline in home advantage, the UEFA Executive Committee has taken the correct decision in adopting the view that it is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight than one scored at home."