👋 Welcome..
..to The Tap-Inn. Where you can tap in to the world of soccer with me, your first-gen Irish Tap-Inn bartender, Joe.
It’s Friiiiiidayyyyyyyyy. On tap this week:
Making plwdlgfgapts make sense 🤓
EFL Cup and AFCON semi-finals 🏆
The best team in Premier League history? 📊
Let’s tap in.
🥃 TOP SHELF
PlWDLGFGAPts - Soccer League Tables Explained
The current Top 10 of the 20-team premier league table
No, I didn’t fall asleep on my keyboard again.
The above cocktail of characters actually represents the mysterious row of letters you see at the top of every league table. A table is a list of teams who all play each other in the same competition, ordered with the best performing teams at the top and the worst at the bottom.
Let’s tap in to how this really works.
Played (Pl) - this number just tells you how many games a team has been through. Sometimes you’ll see it written as GP (Games Played), MP (Matches Played) or even just P (Played).
Won (W) - this is how many times has a team been victorious in a game and earned themselves 3 points towards their league table position. Remember, that’s 3 points for a win.
Drawn (D) - if a team plays a game that ends in a tie, it will be noted in this column. Yes, soccer has ties. And they earn you 1 solitary point. Get used to it, buster.
Lost (L) - see a 2 underneath this column and that means your team has lost 2 games. See a 17 underneath this column and you should probably find yourself another team. A loss scores you a big fat 0 points.
Goals For (GF) - the combined number of goals a team has scored in every game so far. Sometimes just written as F.
Goals Against (GA) - the combined number of goals a team has had scored against them in every game so far. Sometimes just written as A.
Goal Difference (GD) - if you guessed “GF minus GA” you’d be correct. This is the tiebreaker if teams are level on points. See Chelsea and Everton in the table above, for example.
Points (Pts) - the number that matters the most. Win more games, earn more points, place higher on the table.
Example:
Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League with 49 points from 21 games. 15 wins gave them 45 of those points (15 × 3 = 45), their four draw gave them four points (4 × 1 = 4) and their two losses gave them zero points (2 × 0 = 0). As you will see from your wristwatch calculator, 45 + 4 + 0 = 49.
What could be more simple than that???
pours heavy glass of whiskey
🗞️ THIS WEEK IN SOCCER
EFL Cup roundup
Wondering why the below teams weren’t playing with Premier League balls this week? We’ve got you covered. English Football League Cup semi-final first leg results below:
Manchester City 2–0 Newcastle
Antoine Semenyo scored his second goal in as many games for City to break the deadlock before Rayan Cherki added a late second as City take a strong first‑leg lead. Newcastle had chances but couldn’t finish and will need a big second leg.
Chelsea 2–3 Arsenal
Alejandro Garnacho hit a double off the bench to keep Chelsea alive in this tie after Ben White and Viktor Gyökeres had put Arsenal two up early. Martin Zubimendi’s goal 20 mins from time was the difference in this end‑to‑end first leg.
AFCON roundup
AFCON semi-finals results below:
Senegal 1–0 Egypt
A 78th min Sadio Mané winner was enough to decide this cagey semi-final. It’s the end of the road of Mo Salah in a game where Egypt struggled to create clear chances and finished with just four shots all game.
Morocco 0–0 Nigeria (Morocco win 4–2 on penalties)
Keeper Yassine Bounou (aka Bono) the hero in this one, saving two penalties in the shootout. Nigeria managed one shot on target across a goalless 120 as Morocco march on into the final.
That leaves us with 2023 winners Senegal vs 1976 winners Morocco in the final on Sunday. Watch it here.
📝 TRIVIA ON TAP
Point and shoot
What team has the record for both the most points accrued and the most team goals scored in a single Premier League season? 🤔
Keep scrolling for the answer.
🔥 QUICKFIRE
Sound like a pro
A Champions League classic from 2025.
Phrase: “They won on aggregate”
Origin: Came into common use with the rise of two-legged knockout ties in European competitions, where teams play home and away legs with results from both games combined.
Definition: the total score over two legs of knockout football. Can you work out the first leg result in the image above?
Usage: “They just lost 1-0, why did they go through to the final?”, “The semi final was over two legs — they actually won 3-1 on aggregate”.
Stadium of the week
Don’t even think about asking me how they got that TV up there.
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. S.C. Braga’s home turf rock — The Estádio Municipal de Braga — is indeed built into the side of an actual mountain. Cue “rocky defense” puns aplenty.
So granite was architect Eduardo Souto de Moura in bringing his vision to life, he only went and won the god-damn Nobel Prize of architecture in 2004 for his work. You’re a cut above the rest, Eddie.
On this day
The only way to stop Lionel Messi in 2010.
Jan 16th 2010: Lionel Messi scores his 100th goal for Barcelona. At 22 years old, Leo became the youngest player in club history to reach the milestone in a 4-0 win against Sevilla.
A decent moment. Shame his career never really took off though…
📝 TRIVIA ANSWER
Manchester City
As a result of City securing 100 points and 106 goals in the 2017/18 season, the team received the nickname "Centurions", and have been acclaimed by pundits and football journalists as being one of the greatest teams in Premier League history.
As good as they were though, it still took a 94th min Gabriel Jesus 1-0 winner against Southampton on the final day to secure the one hundred point mark. Praise jebus.
Until next time…
Thanks for stopping by The Tap-Inn.
If you enjoyed this, forward it to that friend who knows nothing about soccer and help spread the good word.
I’ll be behind the bar every week, Monday and Friday, serving up soccer. Sláinte.
— Joe