UEFA Champions League in Lisbon, Eight-Team Tournament

According to several respectable media in Europe, UEFA has a format for the finish of this year’s Champions League campaign. They are suggesting that the plan includes the organization of the “Final Eight” tournament, which will take place in Lisboa.

German, British and Spanish media stated today, that the European House of Football has come up with a plan that would save the most prominent club football competition in the world. It would include an unorthodox method, which hasn’t seen before.

After concluding the round of 16 matches, eight clubs would gather, and play the remaining stages in one place. According to the sources from within UEFA, that is going to be Lisboa, who wil take over the organization from Istanbul.

Lisbon has been chosen as the host for the remaining Champions League games. 🇵🇹 https://t.co/6st1nHtBk2

— SPORTbible (@sportbible) June 7, 2020

The capital of Portugal won this honor ahead of Frankfurt and Moscow, mostly because this country was one of the least endangered when talking about COVID-19 pandemics. There are even some rumors that there might be fans in the stands during the final stages.

The games are planned to take place at La Luz and Jose Alvelade stadiums, homes of Benfica and Sporting two of the European powerhouses.

Istanbul gave up on the organization because COVID-19 still rages over Turkey, and both the Turkish government and UEFA didn’t want to risk anything. Also, there were some tensions between the Turkish authorities and the European institutions due to political reasons, and that could be an additional reason.

The remaining games of the round of 16 are between Barca and Napoli, City and Real, Juve and Lion, and finally Bayern and Chelsea.

Barca and the Italians played 1-1 in Naples, and Blaugrana seems to be a massive favorite in this matchup. Even though there won’t be any fans at Camp Nou, playing home is still a big edge for the Spanish superteam.

City defeated Real in Madrid 1-2, after a comeback in the latter stage of the match. Guardiola’s guys are the No.1 favorites, according to the bookmakers, and they really seemed sharp throughout the entire competition.

Juventus is in the worst position of all big names. They lost 1-0 in France against Lyon, and now have to chase the result. This is a unique chance for Christian Ronaldo to get back home, and even to win a trophy at the pitch where he made his professional debut if the finals are to occur at Sporting’s stadium. But first, the Old Lady needs to win the rematch.

And finally, the one pair where there is no drama is the one between Bayern and Chelsea. The German champions demolished the Blues in London with 0-3, and showed that they are among top candidates to lift the trophy.

The other four teams who already secured the quarterfinals are Atletico Madrid who eliminated the reigning champions, Liverpool, PSG who was better than Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta who defeated Valencia in both matches, one of them being a trigger for a massive expansion of COVID-19 in Italy, and finally RB Leipzig who eliminated Tottenham.

There were no talks about the schedule, but we know that the restart of the UCL should be on August 5, and the finals on August 30.

There were no talks about the Europa League, but after the decision, in this case, we can assume that UEFA might use the same pattern for this competition. All in all, top football will be back pretty soon.