There were a few cracking games over the weekend from Europe’s major leagues.
Using a variety of metrics, FootballCritic has developed an algorithm that is used to determine how exciting a particular game was.
Our Match Excitement Rating takes into account a variety of metrics including the number of goals, the timing of goals, corners taken, shots on target, cards issued, and dismissals among other factors.
This weekend saw two games reach the maximum excitement rating of 10.0.
Game of the Week – Frankfurt 3-3 Bayern – 10.0 Excitement Rating
Bayern Munich were denied all three points at the death as Eintracht Frankfurt scored four minutes into injury time to earn a 3-3 draw in the Bundesliga.
The Bavarian giants actually took the lead relatively early in the game as Kim min-Jae scored after the assist from Thomas Muller. The home side reacted superbly and turned the scoreline around thanks to goals from Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike.
They went into the break with the game perfectly poised at 2-2 as Dayot Upamecano scored just three minutes after Ekitike had put the home side ahead.
Less than 10 minutes after the break, Bayern took the lead again, with Michael Olise scoring from the Harry Kane set-up. The visitors held that lead until the dying minutes when Frankfurt‘s star player, Marmoush, scored in the 94th minute.
Remarkably, Frankfurt didn’t get a single corner compared to Bayern‘s 11 in the game and had significantly less possession, yet still grabbed a point in the end.
Game of the Week – Brentford 5-3 Wolves – 10.0 Excitement Rating
Brentford got themselves a much-needed Premier League win and heaped more misery on lowly Wolves after emerging victorious 5-3 in an eight-goal Saturday afternoon thriller.
The timing of the goals was a major contributing factor to the excitement as the first half was a ding-dong battle.
The pattern of goalscoring went Brentford–Wolves–Brentford–Wolves–Brentford–Brentford as we got no less than six goals in the opening half.
The two-goal cushion in the second period allowed Brentford more comfort and they actually made it 5-2 late on through Fabio Carvalho before Wolves pulled another back via Rayan Ait-Nouri.
What will please Thomas Frank is that Brentford‘s five goals came from five different goalscorers on the day.
Exciting Matches – Honourable Mentions
Inter defeated Torino 3-2 and the overall match earned a rating of 9.1. That one included a hat-trick from Marcus Thuram and also an early dismissal for Torino defender Guillermo Maripan.
There’s another Premier League entry in the top five thanks to the exciting game at the Etihad between Man City and Fulham for a rating of 8.9. The reigning champions had to come back from behind to beat Marco Silva’s men 3-2, and the fact that Fulham scored very late on to make it 3-2 added that extra injection of drama as City held on for the three points.
Rounding out our top five of the most exciting games from this weekend are Reims and Montpellier, with the former defeating the latter 4-2 to earn an 8.8 Match Excitement Rating.