Arsene Wenger believes the away-goals rule in Europe should be amended as it is “outdated”.
Arsenal and Chelsea have been knocked out of the Champions League this season after falling victim to the law.
Wenger believes Uefa should re-examine it - and can learn from the way that the away-goals rule is implemented in England.
"The rule was created in the sixties to encourage teams to attack away from home. Since then football has changed"
Arsene Wenger
“Two teams have gone out on away goals, which I think should be questioned because it’s a rule that is outdated now and has to be changed. I’ve fought for that for a long time,” he said.
“It should count maybe after extra time because this [current] rule was created in the sixties to encourage teams to attack away from home. Since then football has changed. The weight of the away goal is too big today.
“I think maybe you can count [away goals] after extra-time like in the League Cup in England.”
While Wenger is surprised that there are no English teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, he does not believe it points to a crisis.
“I don’t think that you can draw a general conclusion,” he said. “In a direct knockout, it’s important that you’re very efficient and a bit lucky as well.
“None of the teams, apart from Barcelona, look to be superior in Europe today. Two other teams, Chelsea and Arsenal, could have gone through. I don’t think there’s a lot wrong, we now just have to focus on our next targets.
“We are a better team today than four months ago. There is a fantastic spirit in the team, there is great quality as well, and [we need to] rectify what we haven’t done well in the first leg [against Monaco] and continue to improve.
“We have won 13 of our last 15 games and that's down to consistency, quality and improvement.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
