Home-Field Advantage in Soccer: UEFA Champions League and Europa League Evaluation on the 2021-2022 Season

İngilizce (OpenAlex)

Competition analysis in football is an important method to evaluate the success and failure of teams. Home advantage is considered as an important factor in achieving success in competitions. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of home advantage on technical criteria in the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League, which are organised at club level, played in the 2021-2022 season. In the data collection phase, descriptive survey method was used. Within the scope of the research, a total of 262 football matches, excluding the final matches played at neutral grounds and total of 744 goals scored in these matches were analysed in terms of home and away teams in the UEFA Champions League and Europa League. The goals scored were categorised as the goal minutes intervals, the goal scoring areas (Inside the Penalty Area: IPA; Outside the Penalty Area: OPA), the ways goals were scored (Head Kick; Foot Kick), the number of touches on the ball before the goal (1 Touch: 1T; 2 Touches: 2T; 3 Touches: 3T; 4 Touches + >4T), the direction of attack before the goal and the goals scored from set-pieces (Corner Kick; Penalty Kick and Free Kick) for the home and away teams. The images of the analysed goals were accessed on the UEFA official website with open access permission. Frequency (f) and percentage (%) were calculated for the evaluation of the data obtained, and since the data did not show normal distribution according to the Shapiro-Wilk test results, Kruskal-Wallis test was applied to look at the difference between the groups and the significance level was accepted as p