Going into the quarterfinals at the World Cup at Qatar, Croatia and Morocco scored lowest on the ‘Expected Goals’ quotient that has come to dominate so much of modern football analysis. Expected Goals, or xG, is essentially a measure of the number of goals that a team is expected to score based on the quantity and quality of the chances that it creates in a match. With improving technology, xG has become a much-treasured tool in both predicting the score of a football match, and in allowing us to understand how, at times, the ultimate result of a match might be at odds with how the game, in fact, panned out.
Morocco and Croatia at the World Cup Finals
Morocco and Croatia at the World Cup Finals
Morocco and Croatia at the World Cup Finals
Going into the quarterfinals at the World Cup at Qatar, Croatia and Morocco scored lowest on the ‘Expected Goals’ quotient that has come to dominate so much of modern football analysis. Expected Goals, or xG, is essentially a measure of the number of goals that a team is expected to score based on the quantity and quality of the chances that it creates in a match. With improving technology, xG has become a much-treasured tool in both predicting the score of a football match, and in allowing us to understand how, at times, the ultimate result of a match might be at odds with how the game, in fact, panned out.