23:55 Jan 5, 2010 

Ok, thanks Chappy, I see what you're saying - But actually in this case we're talking about a final win by 1 point (not clear whether it's in one match, or over a series - and frankly who cares apart from soccerbofs ?!?) - The point is that the "win" was by 1 point...
And some of us need to get out more...? :-)

19:52 Jan 5, 2010 

First column is games played, then goal difference followed by points.

E.g. a team scores thirty goals and concedes twenty then the Goal Difference will be +10. It's used to separate teams with the same number of points.

19:45 Jan 5, 2010 

1 Chelsea 20 29 45
2 Man Utd 20 27 43
3 Arsenal 19 30 41
4 Tottenham 20 20 37
5 Man City 19 11 35
6 Aston Villa 20 11 35
7 Liverpool 20 12 33
8 Birmingham 20 2 32
9 Fulham 19 5 27
10 Sunderland 20 -3 23
11 Everton 19 -6 22
12 Stoke 19 -8 21
13 Blackburn 20 -15 21
14 Burnley 20 -18 20
15 Wolves 20 -19 19
16 Wigan 19 -23 19
17 West Ham 20 -9 18
18 Bolton 18 -10 18
19 Hull 20 -22 18
20 Portsmouth 20 -14

The first figure is games played, goal difference and finally points won.


A team that score 30 goals in twenty matches and concedes 10 will have a goal difference of 20. Goal difference is used to separate two teams who have the same number of points. So you can see that it's not used in matches.

I've been following football for 40 years for my sins.

19:22 Jan 5, 2010 

What in the world is the difference between 'a goal ahead' and 'a goal difference' ??

19:08 Jan 5, 2010 

Your translation is wrong if you're talking about a match. Sometimes I wonder why I bother.

08:36 Dec 29, 2009 

Otherwise we might be talking at cross purposes because of shifted goalposts (buts écartés?).

08:21 Dec 29, 2009 

please post the sentence so colleagues can see how it's actually being used in your context