31.03.2020The Advantage of Scoring Just Before the Half-Time Break—Pure Myth?

Egon Franck, together with Philippe Meier, Raphael Flepp, and Maximilian Ruedisser publish their new paper on "The Advantage of Scoring Just Before the Half-Time Break—Pure Myth? Quasi-Experimental Evidence From European Football" in the Journal of Sports Economics.

Abstract:

We examine whether the moment just before the half-time break is a particularly good time to score a goal. Using detailed data from the top five European football leagues between the 2013-2014 and 2017-2018 seasons, we exploit the quasi-random occurrence of goals scored just before and just after the half-time break. In the former situation, the game is exogenously interrupted by a break immediately after the goal, whereas in the latter situation, the game continues without interruption. We show that in the case of a goal being scored just before halftime, the scoring team benefits more from the half-time break than the conceding team.