Throughout the entirety of the 2018-19 Premier League season, the home team won 47% of matches, lost 34% and drew 11%. Prior to the break, home teams in the Bundesliga had won 43.3% of their games. Many wondered what playing behind closed doors would do to home advantage, and the early answer is actually quite astounding.
Although there’s only a small sample size of 18 matches from the past two weekends, the home team has won just three of those games — that’s a win percentage of only 16.6. What’s more, two of the three victories have been recorded by the division’s heaviest hitters, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.
16.6% - Since the Bundesliga returned on May 16th, home sides have managed to win just three of the 18 matches played over the last two weeks (16.6%) - before the break in play, the win % amongst home sides was 43.3%. "Advantage"? pic.twitter.com/1bY4IxBotC
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 24, 2020
Clubs have suffered some traumatic returns on their own grounds over the last two weekends: Mainz lost 5-0 to RB Leipzig at Opel Arena, Schalke lost 3-0 to Augsburg at Veltins-Arena, Werder Bremen lost 4-1 to Bayer Leverkusen at the Weser-Station and Hoffenheim lost 3-0 to Hertha Berlin at Rhein-Neckar-Arena.
Studies have shown that while there’s no difference in the number of fouls that referees have attributed to home and away teams, referees are more prone to handing yellow and red cards to away teams due to crowd noise.
That’s obviously not the case now: In the 18 Bundesliga matches, the home sides have received 33 yellow cards and one red. The away teams have received 29 yellow cards and one red. One penalty has been awarded to the home team whereas three have been given to the visitors.
The entire world is looking forward to Tuesday’s top-of-the-table clash between Bayern and Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion, but it’s clear that BVB won’t be on the receiving end of any home cooking.
