Goals aplenty scored in group stage of Uefa Champions League

After a high-scoring night in the Uefa Champions League two weeks ago, Ian Hawkey explains that the tournament's structure and team strategy play important factors.

Shakhtar Donetsk players celebrate after scoring one of their seven goals during a rout of Bate Borisov on October 21. Maxim Malinovsky / AFP

Bate Borisov deserved sympathy as they travelled to Lviv on Tuesday.

Two weeks ago, they hosted Shakhtar Donetsk and were 6-0 down by half-time.

Shakhtar, who had scored seven by the end, were supposed to be carrying a huge disadvantage into this Uefa Champions League campaign after the political turmoil in their part of Ukraine and their obligation to play their home matches away from Donetsk.

Spare a thought for Roma, too, as they headed north to Bavaria as Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena is certain to throb with an even higher level of expectation tonight because of recent form.

In the Stadio Olimpico 15 days ago, Bayern destroyed the second-best team in Serie A. They were 5-0 ahead by the interval, 7-1 winners by the final whistle.

The way the Champions League is structured, it is possible to survive a mauling like that in the group stage and still reach the knockouts in February.

Burying the psychological damage is harder.

In one way the likes of Bate and Roma might regard the back-to-back scheduling of Matchdays 3 and 4 as an opportunity to right some wrongs.

They must imagine, though, that several players of Shakhtar and Bayern regard tonight as a chance to accumulate more goals.

The night of October 22, when the eight fixtures that are reversed tonight were played, set records for club football’s leading competition in Europe.

In all, 40 goals were scored – five of them by Shakhtar’s Luiz Adriano – in the kind of breathless rush that, while advertising the entertainment value of the competition for broadcasters with rights to show highlights packages, presented a few questions about the health and balance of the competition.

There were reminders that standards of attacking play rise year by year and that, whatever your fame, being out of the Champions League for even a couple of seasons can leave a club with the feeling it has missed out on crucial homework.

Liverpool felt that in their early group matches, as did Roma, who were tipped as dark horses as they prepared for their return after a season’s absence from any European competition, before they were blitzed by the 2013 champions.

For some years, the Champions League has established patterns that go contrary to the traditions of domestic leagues. For a start, it yields a higher goals-per-game average.

If current tendencies continue, the season is not far off where the goal average per fixture is more than three.

In 2012/2013, a new high was recorded in the 22-year history of the Champions League: 268 goals in the 125 matches at 2.94 per contest.

Last season, that barely slipped to 262 in total. After 48 matches in 2014/15, the average stood at 2.94.

Away wins – though not as emphatic as Shakhtar’s or Bayern’s last month – are also significantly more frequent than in major national leagues, a trend attributable in part to the sophisticated counter-attacking strategies developed by many of the leading teams.

“Counter-attacking is now much better organised and well thought out,” Carlos Ancelotti, the Real Madrid head coach, told Uefa’s technical report into the 2013/14 Champions League.

“It’s not just about launching a long ball forward. Counters tend to be more elaborately planned and can create more goals.”

Indeed, the statistics from last season showed a significant drop in the number of goals scored thanks to through-balls, or “over the top” passes through the centre of the pitch.

According to Uefa, fewer than one in 10 goals in 2013/14 came about that way. The impulse is to formulate something cleverer and cultivate the element of surprise.

As Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea coach, told a meeting of elite coaches in September, particular manoeuvres, practised in training, will be “saved up” and premiered in Champions League matches.

“In the Champions League, opponents watch you so closely you can only use the move once,” Mourinho said. “So you reserve it for a big occasion.”

It is unlikely an early autumn group phase match against Maribor counts as a big occasion for a team like Chelsea, yet, like many of the heavyweight clubs, Chelsea regard Matchday 4 as a key date in the calendar because ideally they want to have all but secured qualification for the next phase by the end of it.

The same urgency will motivate Bayern and fellow table-toppers Porto and Paris Saint-Germain.

The French champions were conspicuous on the remarkable night of October 22 for having won only 1-0 and securing their win late, away, against minnows Apoel of Cyprus.

At the Parc des Princes, PSG hope to catch up on the festival of goalscoring that recent precedent has led everyone to expect from Wednesday night’s contests.