Visualizing goal difference in top division football games

Football is back this week in England, France, Spain and Italy after a great summer of sport.

In this article, I’ve looked into the goal difference across the top ten European domestic leagues during the 2023–24 and 2022–23 seasons to understand what percentage of games had a difference of two and at least three goals during these two seasons.

I’ve built these graphs on Posit (previously known as R studio) and the infographic with Figma for a better resolution.

Percentage of games with two-goal difference

During the 2023–24 season, 25.30% of games in the “Premier League” had a goal difference of two, the highest percentage across the domestic leagues compared. The percentage increased by 3.7% (in absolute terms) compared to the 2022–23 season.

The league with the lowest percentage of two-goal difference during 2023–24 season was the “Primeira Liga” in Portugal with 17.60%, 1.8% lower than the previous season (2022–23).

Percentage of games with at least three-goal difference

25.6% of games in the “Eredivisie” had a goal difference of at least three goals in the 2023–24 season, 1.2% higher than the previous season.

The “Bundesliga” followed with 20.9% of matches with at least three goals of difference, 1.2% lower than the previous season.

“La Liga” in Spain had the lowest percentage of games with a difference of at least 3 goals, with 12.9% in 2023–24 season.

Summary

The below table provides a summary of average goals per game, percentage of games with two and at least three goals of difference.

Code, questions and feedback

Thank you very much reading the article. Please feel free to provide any feedback, question.

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