User:Matthew of Hamburg/sandbox

A team's head-to-head record is used especially in baseball (IBAF and CEB, but not in MLB), basketball and US football in some competitions or leagues to determine the placing of several teams which have finished in a draw/tie. It is also referred to as a head-to-head tiebreak rule.

A head-to-head tiebreaker or direct comparison rule takes the results between teams in a preliminary tournament group stage which have finished level on points to determine the final ranking in that group and thus decide which teams advance. Games against other teams in the same group or league are not considered when applying the head-to-head tiebreak rule.

The use of the head-to-head tiebreak is a relatively new innovation in association football. The procedure is currently used in association football in the group phase of the UEFA (European soccer championship, the UEFA Champions League), the Spanish Primera División and the Italian Serie A. In competitions which are governed by FIFA directly, such as the FIFA World Cup, the head-to-head tiebreaker is only applied if goal difference and goals scored is still not sufficient to decide the final group-stage ranking.

Two teams with an equal number of points
If the two teams have only played once, that team places higher which won the head-to-head fixture. If this game ended in a draw, a direct comparison of head-to-head matches cannot determine the ranking and the next criterion used is overall goal difference of the teams concerned.

If two teams have played two or more games against each other, the team which scored the most points wins when using the head-to-head tiebreak rule. If the teams are still tied, then head-to-head goal difference (goals scored minus goals conceded) and after this the team scoring the most goals in group play is ranked higher. If this still does not break the tie, then the away goals rule is used.


 * Example (Group A of the UEFA Euro 2008)

Portugal and Turkey earned three points points for each of their two respective wins. Portugal finished first in the group because it won against Turkey. The Czech Republic placed higher than Switzerland because of the head-to-head result between the two teams. If, instead of the head-to-head tiebreak rule, the goals difference rule had been applied, Switzerland would have placed ahead of the Czech Republic.

An equal number of points for more than two teams
If more than two teams are tied, the head-to-head results of those teams are shown in a separate table comparing them directly. Doing this does not always break the tie. If applying the head-to-head rule does not break the tie, other criteria are applied. <!—Various special cases which occur in European Championship group play could be discussed here. Assuming one team wins (or loses) all of its group games and is thus well behind or ahead of the other teams, and if the remaining three teams then were to all have the same number of points because they either all drew against each other, or have each won just one game (within the group of three), this “special case” occurs. -->


 * Example (Group C of the UEFA EURO 2004)

<!—top right: Final standings -->

<!—bottom right: Head-to-head standings -->

In the group phase, Italy, Denmark and Sweden all drew against each other as well as all defeating Bulgaria. The group standings resulted from the head-to-head tiebreak rule applied in the table on the bottom right. Because all three teams had the same number of points and goal differential, their rankings could only finally be decided based on goals scored.

Trivia
Sweden and Denmark already knew before their last group phase match that a result of 2:2 (or a higher draw such as 3:3 or 4:4, etc.) would allow each team to place first and second in their group, qualifying them for the quarterfinals. No matter how many goals Italy might have scored in winning against Bulgaria, they could not advance to the quarterfinals.