In a report published by the British newspaper “The Times,” it was confirmed that UEFA decided to continue using extra time to resolve ties in two-legged matches, instead of moving directly to penalty shootouts.
UEFA had proposed the idea of eliminating extra time due to pressures related to the congested match schedule and the numerous minutes players are on the field. However, in the end, the European association rejected this change, considering that deciding matches directly by penalty shootouts would not be fair, especially in games that end in a tie after two extended matches over 180 minutes.
It is worth noting that the rule of counting away goals as double has been recently abolished, which has contributed to reducing the rates of draws in two-legged matches, which have decreased from 20% to 12% in European competitions.
