How Does Goal Difference Work in Football? With Examples

If you’ve been following football for a while, then you must know how exciting it can be to witness a season getting decided by a single goal difference. It can be a tough end for the runner-up team, but that one goal defining a season is one of my favourite aspects of football.

You don’t need a degree in statistics to understand goal difference. The main confusion about the rule generally stems from when it’s applied, since it may not be a factor in certain competitions.

Goal difference (GD) means = goals scored − goals conceded. Leagues commonly use GD to separate teams tied on points, with the team having the higher GD ranking above the lower one.

A positive GD means a team scored more goals than they conceded, while a negative GD means the opposite. Most domestic leagues, such as the Premier League, list goal difference as the first tiebreaker after points in the standings. Tournament and international competitions sometimes place head-to-head results before or after GD.

Here are a couple of scenarios that highlight how goal differential works in football:

• Single-team calculation

  • If Team A scored 38 goals and conceded 24: GD = 38 − 24 = +14.

  • If Team B scored 22 and conceded 35: GD = 22 − 35 = −13.

• Two teams are level on points (table tiebreaker).

  • Team X: 70 points, GD +25.

  • Team Y: 70 points, GD +20.

    • Result: Team X finishes above Team Y because +25 > +20.

• Equal GD

  • If Team M and Team N both have 70 points and both have GD +10, the next usual tiebreaker is goals scored (who scored more over the season).

  • If still equal, competitions may use head-to-head results.

• Real-world, season-deciding example

Besiktas and Galatasaray finished level on points on the final day of the 2020-21 Turkish Super League season. Besiktas had a goal difference one better than Galatasaray (Besiktas +45, Galatasaray +44) and clinched the title.