A football statistics glossary: every number on a match page, explained

A finished match page carries about thirty distinct pieces of information, and roughly half of them are terms of art. This is what each of them means, in the order you meet them going down the page. The examples come from Beşiktaş 4–1 Marseille, a Europa League match with a full set of data.

The scoreline and the status

Full time is the final score after ninety minutes plus stoppage time. On ScoreTable a finished match is simply marked Finished.

After extra time (AET) means the score stood level at ninety minutes in a knockout tie and two further fifteen-minute halves were played. The score shown is the one after 120 minutes.

After penalties (PEN) means extra time did not settle it either, and the tie was decided by a shoot-out. The scoreline is still the one from open play; the shoot-out is the tie-breaker, not part of the score.

Half-time is the score at the interval, shown in smaller type beneath the full-time score. It is the quickest way to see whether a match turned around: Beşiktaş were level 1–1 at the break and won 4–1.

Postponed means the match was called off before it started and will be played later. Abandoned means it started and was stopped before the end. Cancelled means it will not be played at all. Awarded means the competition assigned the result rather than it being settled on the field. Walkover means one side did not fulfil the fixture and the other goes through.

The events

Goal entries carry the minute and the scorer. A minute written as 45+1 means the first minute of stoppage time at the end of the first half.

Assist is the pass, or occasionally the touch, that directly set up a goal. It appears in brackets after the scorer.

Own goal (OG) is credited when a player puts the ball into their own net. The goal counts for the opposition, and the player named is the one who scored it.

Penalty missed marks a penalty during normal play that did not result in a goal, whether saved or off target. Shoot-out penalties are not listed here.

Yellow card is a caution. Red card is a sending-off. Second yellow card is listed separately because it is a sending-off arrived at differently, through two cautions in the same match, and it is treated differently by competitions when it comes to suspensions.

Substitution shows the player coming off and the player coming on.

The line-ups

Formation is the shape a team started in, counted from the defence forwards and leaving out the goalkeeper, so 4-3-3 means four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards. It describes the starting arrangement, not what happened after kick-off.

Starting XI is the eleven who began the match, listed in formation order.

Substitutes are the named players on the bench, whether or not they came on.

Coaches are the managers or head coaches of each side.

The statistics

Possession is the share of the match each team had the ball, as a percentage. The two figures add up to 100.

Total shots is every attempt at goal. It splits two different ways, and both add back to the same total, which is a useful check when a set of numbers looks odd.

The first split is by outcome. Shots on goal are attempts on target, meaning those that would enter the goal, including the ones that did and the ones the goalkeeper stopped. Shots off goal are attempts that missed. Blocked shots are attempts stopped by an outfield player before reaching the goal. Beşiktaş had 7 on, 9 off and 2 blocked, which is 18, their total.

The second split is by distance. Shots inside box and shots outside box divide the same attempts by whether they were struck from inside the penalty area. Beşiktaş had 12 and 6, which is 18 again.

Saves is the number of shots the goalkeeper stopped.

Corners is the number of corner kicks a team took. Offsides is the number of times a team was caught offside. A player is in an offside position if they are in the opposition half and any part of the head, body or feet is nearer the opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. Being in that position is not itself an offence; becoming involved in active play from it is.

Fouls is the number of free kicks a team conceded. Free kicks is a separate count in the data and is not always the mirror image of the opponent's fouls.

Yellow cards and red cards repeat the card counts as totals.

Total passes and accurate passes are self-explanatory. Pass accuracy is the second as a percentage of the first, and it is not always supplied, in which case dividing one by the other gets you there: Beşiktaş completed 493 of 564, or 87 per cent.

Expected goals (xG) is the sum of the probabilities that each of a team's shots would be scored, based on the circumstances of each attempt. It is the one statistic on the page that is modelled rather than counted, and it is not available for every match. It has its own explainer.

The team record

A club's own page carries a record table covering every match ScoreTable holds for them.

Matches played is the total on record. Won, drawn and lost break it down by result. Goals for is the number scored and goals against the number conceded. Goals against subtracted from goals for gives goal difference, which decides most league positions once points are level, though not in every league.

Below the record sit the club's results, its upcoming fixtures and the competitions it appears in, each result linking to the full match page.