And at the end, the Germans always win, don’t they? An evaluation of country-specific scoring behaviour in the dying seconds of international club soccer games

This article contributes to the literature on performance determinants in soccer by investigating country differences in goal scoring in the dying seconds of international soccer games (i.e. in the 90th minute or later). We analyse this goal-scoring behaviour in 1,008 recent soccer games played in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League and Europa League. In contrast to Gary Lineker’s well-known quote that “at the end, the Germans always win”, no significant evidence is found for German teams scoring a goal in the dying seconds more often than other teams. Our results indicate, however, that European clubs do have an interest in learning from the end-of-game tactics used by French and Spanish clubs in recent international games as these teams were less likely to concede a goal during the dying seconds. English teams were also in this situation but only if they had an English coach.