GENEVA – There will be a European club champion this year.
The latter stages of the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds will be held in Lisbon, Portugal with an Aug. 23 final to cap seven nights in a 12-day span of elite European teams, it was reported Monday.
UEFA had hoped to hold an eight-team knockout bracket in two empty stadiums in Portugal’s capital. This bit of news was confirmed in reports Monday by broadcaster Sky Italia.
UEFA’s executive committee must agree on the plan on Wednesday among a series of decisions to reschedule international soccer – for European teams and national squads – after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sport.
The championship will be decided in a Sunday final at Benfica’s Stadium of Light. Originally, it was slated for Saturday, May 30 at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, but UEFA looked elsewhere when that city was no longer practical due to the pandemic in Turkey.
The semifinals will be hosted by the Stadium of Light and the nearby home stadium of Sporting Lisbon Aug. 18-19. Four quarterfinal matches have been planned on successive nights from Aug. 12-15, according to Sky Italia.
Four quarterfinals berths need to be decided. The UEFA executive panel must decide Wednesday where to schedule second-leg games in the round of 16 that were postponed in March.
Those matches could also go to Lisbon or be played without fans in the home stadiums of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Manchester City.
Lisbon was the losing candidate in May 2018 when UEFA selected Istanbul to host this the 2020 Champions League final.
