Normally, when a team plays at home, they usually have the advantage over their opponents and would look to exploit that home advantage. It is not unusual to expect more of your team when they play in front of their own fans, however, the fear of conceding an Away goal seems to cripple the team and negate the home advantage. Playing the first leg of a two legged fixture at home is a great disadvantage that seems to be ignored by many.
It is not an illogical decision by the team managers to play a defensive game at their home grounds since if they do succeed in maintaining a clean sheet and securing a bore 0-0 draw, the team can then go onto the second leg with the comfort of knowing that a single goal will be enough to see them through , provided they don't lose the match.
This defensive display by teams playing at home in the first leg of European Competitions has analysts and fans furious as they believe that if the team plays negative football at home, then how much worse will they be on the road?!. But what they don't realize is that if a goal is conceded at home , it infinitely complicates things in the away fixture. Having lost by a single goal at home, the players must go out with a mindset of scoring two goals, which opens up their defense and they may end up conceding more.
It is foolish to ignore the away goal rule and simply play your usual game (unless you're Barcelona). Obviously more care and caution is required in the first leg , especially for the home team with the main focus being to maintain a clean sheet (at the expense of winning the game). Then the manager should adjust the game plan for the away fixture based on the home result.
Expect to see a lot more of this trend of defending at Home and attacking on the Away fixture over the next few weeks of European Football.
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