when a tie is impossible

[JaredL]

In cup competitions the standard setup is that teams play two matches, one at each team's home, and the scores are added. If they are tied the team scoring more away goals advances.

This leads to an interesting situation that is rare in other sports but fairly common in these competitions. An example of this happened today in the Villarreal - Inter Milan match. The first leg was playing in Milan who won 2-1. Late in the second leg Villarreal were ahead 1-0 late. Because they were tied and had more away goals, Villarreal were ahead and Inter were really pushing forward.

The interesting part is that while one team is ahead, a tie is impossible so a swing in the game will cause them to be losing. This makes it very exciting. It's like in (American) football when a team is ahead by 1 or 2 and on defense with a couple minutes to go, or to a lesser extent basketball when a team is up one and defending with 5 or 6 seconds left (a foul makes it possible to tie again).

Jared