The Most Bizarre Champions

If the current Champions League was to be different due to the scourge of the Covid-19, its final phase will be even more so, since it will be played at a single stadium, and in just 10 days for seven games.

Therefore, the quarterfinal, semifinal and final matches will be a single match, for the first time in history.

All the matches will be played from August 12-23 in Lisbon, where the Spanish Atletico de Madrid can already take passage, ready to take revenge for having lost that mythical final against neighbor Real Madrid in overtime.

Atletico had already defeated the current winner of the Champions, the English team Liverpool, and the continental competition would be their lifeline for a gray season at home.

Previously, the pending home matches must be played in the playoffs between Manchester City-Real Madrid, Barcelona-Naples, Bayern-Chelsea and Juventus-Olympique Lyon, which will probably add another unusual element, and that is that they would not be played at the home of any of the protagonists.

According to UEFA, these matches would take place between August 7-8 on a neutral stadium, in Guimaraes and Porto, so that Manchester City, Barcelona, ​​Bayern and Juventus would lose the advantage of playing the second match at home, unless that between both clubs agree and decide to move if all sanitary measures are guaranteed.

Barcelona and Juventus would take the downside of this arrangement, because the former managed a 1-1 draw in the first match, and the latter lost 0-1.

The originally venue chosen was Istanbul, but the Turkish city decided to resign by having to play behind closed doors because of the health crisis the whole planet has suffered.

The Europa League will experience something similar, since the final was scheduled in the Polish city of Gdansk, but now it will be another final of eight in Germany, in the cities of Gelsenkirchen, Dusseldorf, Cologne and Duisburg. They are more because this competition was more delayed and has two pending games in the round of 16, and another six missing the home matches.

The latest news is that of the five substitutions per game in all cases, which will extend to the continental competitions, although next season it’s said that they will return to the usual three.

Is it or is it not the most bizarre Champions League in history?

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff