Reuters are reporting that the final three rounds for Europe’s biggest club soccer competition will all take place in Lisbon, with eight quarterfinalists competing for the crown in the capital city of Portugal. The plan is expected to be formally presented and ratified during a UEFA executive meeting on Wednesday. The Champions League, like all major soccer competitions, was suspended in mid-March due to the covid19 pandemic. UEFA wanted to give domestic seasons a chance to finish before resuming UCL play and had been targeting an August return.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will both be condensed to one leg in an effort to finish the season in a more timely manner, according to Reuters. Here’s the reported schedule with games expected to be completed behind closed doors:
Champions League draw: Mid-July in Nyon, Switzerland, according to Sky Italia
Quarterfinal round: Week of Monday, Aug. 10
Semifinal round: Tuesday, Aug. 18 and Wednesday, Aug. 19
Champions League final: Sunday, Aug. 23
Four round of 16 second legs still need to be completed, and those games will take place at their scheduled venues, per the report. Four teams have already punched their tickets to the UCL quarterfinals: Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig, Atalanta and Atletico Madrid.
Atletico Madrid knocked out defending champion Liverpool shortly before the shutdown.
The Europa League will have a similar finish to its season with games being played at neutral sites in Germany, according to the report.
Istanbul was originally set to host the 2020 Champions League final on May 30. The
Turkish city will now instead host the 2021 final.
Major domestic soccer competitions have restart in recent weeks. The Bundesliga resumed play in Germany last month, and soccer returned in both Spain and Italy just last week. The Premier League is set to return on Wednesday, with Man City facing Arsenal, A match that will see Arteta and his former boss come face-to-face, has a full slate of games on the calendar for this weekend.
France’s Ligue 1 was the only major competition to cancel the remainder of its season.
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