UEFA have today confirmed plans to finish this season's Champions League with a mini-tournament in Lisbon over 12 days in August

Europe's premier club competition will complete its 2019-20 edition with a final-eight World Cup-style tournament, held in the Portuguese capital, from August 12 to August 23.

After the four outstanding last-16 ties are completed at the scheduled home stadiums, the quarter-finals onwards will be held on neutral territory, with no fans present and, most notably, over just one-leg.

As things stand, teams will not have to quarantine either, with each club are likely to set up in their own hotel away from the public so that social distancing measures can be maintained.

UEFA have earmarked August as the month to complete the competition in order to give Europe's top domestic leagues enough time to finish their respective seasons.

The 'final eight' tournament will be held over 12 days in Lisbon, with the first match taking place on August 12 and the final being played on August 23.

Instead of playing the quarter-finals over two legs as normal, the new plan will see the ties become single games across four straight days.

The semi-finals, which will also be played over one leg, will take place on August 18 and 19, with the final at the Estadio da Luz four days later.

Istanbul was due to host the 2020 final but will now be the venue for the 2021 showpiece, with all other scheduled hosts moving back a year.

The teams already qualified for this season's quarter-finals are France's PSG, Italy's Atalanta, Spain's Atletico Madrid and Germany's RB Leipzig.

The remaining last-16 second-leg fixtures are Manchester City's home tie against Real Madrid, Chelsea's trip to Bayern Munich, Juventus's home game against Lyon and Napoli's visit to Barcelona.
Portugal was picked because of its location and the fact it has no teams left in the competition.

Lisbon emerged as an attractive host city because it has two stadiums with the facilities needed for elite matches - Benfica's Estadio da Luz and Sporting Lisbon's Estadio Jose Alvalade.

In addition, most of the country's coronavirus restrictions are also being lifted this month, with air travel in and out of the country allowed from June 22.

Visitors will not need to go into quarantine on arrival, although additional health and safety measures will be in place in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Organisers are proceeding on the basis that all matches will be played behind closed doors, with only essential personnel allowed on site.

However, UEFA are understood to have left the door open for possible changes should public health conditions in Portugal allow.

If government guidelines are altered in time for ticketing to be organised, there is an outside chance that some fans could be allowed in to watch.

The capacity of both grounds would be greatly reduced in order to comply with social distancing rules and other safety protocols.

UEFA are braced for a loss in income from broadcasters, who will expect sizeable refunds because they will have six fewer games to show as a result of the new format.

Source: https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/025e-0f9a3f8c5c4d-3323c8a96a4d-1000--champions-league-to-resume-on-7-august/amp/

Nice one

I hope and pray Ronaldo and Juventus will win this one in Lisbon

Can't wait

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Owkey

Slawormir:
Damnnnnn niggarrr
Wow

damn nigga walking to front page like.............................

welcome back

Damnnnnn niggarrr
Wow
Champions League night! Best of all night

Na to resume my bet9ja and virtual bet be this
God abeg bless your boy this period
Because for every day we wake we are faced with more than a hundred ways to become a millionaire of which gambling is among

A big shout out to all my fellow gamblers, punters, stakers, risk takers and high rollers

Finally league is back. Wives should hand over the remote back to there husband 😉😉😉😉😉😉

Which one is last 8
What will happen to teams that have return legs for the last 16 stage?

...

We've heard o this is the 2nd time today now.. Kilode now

good for cr7 because it would be home coming for him but as it stands the only team that are strong favorites to win this cup is bayern because of their red hot form and they jus won thier league meaning that the rest leagues fixtures would be used to keep fit and stay in shape unlike p.s g dt thier league av been called off....forget barca, madrid and juve, those clubs aint that good for a single fixture and they all do need 2nd legs to finish off teams and not that good when playing away from home....since its a one leg tie and on a neutral ground i think a big gun may not win this, if am tipping a smaller club to make it to win it, i would go for athletico so it would finally be the year for simeone to get his hands on this holy grail, or luck would jus speak for the paris having neyma, icardi and mbappe all coming back with a bang and prove dt money can win this title and also, maybe city boys can finally win this for pep before thier transfer ban...cnt wait for those 12 days in August in lisbon...jus cnt wait

Hmmmm.
Corona or no corona, everything will be okay

Great

Nice one... See my signature below for link to stream today's games

CR7 and juventus will be victorious in the beautiful city of Lisbon

Teams left to qualify definitely include:

Bayern Munich (Sorry Chelsea! Drogba has retired)!

Barcelona (Napoli under Gattuso never baff)

Juventus (no arguments here)

Man City (except Debruyne and Aguero are unfit)

Corona virus just completely changed my view of life - I FINALLY BELIEVE NOTHING IS MORE IMPORTANT IN THIS LIFE THAN LIFE ITSELF
building mansions, buying exotic cars, marrying fine girls, watching football, finishing school as young as possible, growing business into conglomerate are all good but not sacrosanct

Things that I believe are written in gold are just changing as if it's nothing, who can ever believe the champion leagues can end up like this, I've watched two-legs throughout my life that I can't believe change is possible, France cancelled their league without bathing an eyelid, coach can now make 5 substitutions, my friend boss that can fire you for coming 5-minutes late actually shut down his business for almost 4 month - he always act like if the business doesn't run in a day he will die, as religious as Nigeria is they close down church and mosque, even the almighty Saudi Arabia put Mecca under lock and key, pope shut down Vatican

The whole world was grounded to a halt yet after some time the living simply move on

Corona I give you double salute, you are the real MVP, the one that command and leave no one any choice than to obey

Chelsea fans be like...

Ronaldo turf

Like the final would be played in sporting Lisbon home stadium

Noted.

Chelsea can spring a SURPRISE.

NEVER SAY NEVER!!

I can't wait for UCL to start because Chelsea fan are gaining too much weight due to no shouting,cursing for their players and persecute at lampard

NORSYK:
CR7 and juventus will be victorious in the beautiful city of Lisbon

Who exactly are you gonna beat to clinch it??! Bayern??! PSG??! Barcelona (This would be fun)??!

WHAT ABOUT euopa league

The main man

Nice

Advantage to teams like Bayern that have been playing for a while now and have built up great chemistry. To me they are in pole position to lift the big ears.