The European football governing body UEFA, says this season’s Champions League and Europa League competitions will be completed in August with “final eight” tournaments in Lisbon, Portugal and in cities across Germany. This decision was made following an executive committee meeting held on Wednesday.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals will be staged over one leg, instead of the usual two, with the final to be held on august 23.
The 4 outstanding last-16 second leg matches namely, Manchester City vs. Real Madrid, Bayern Munich vs. Chelsea, Juventus vs. Olympique Lyonnais and Barcelona vs. Napoli will take place on August 7 or 8, either at the originally scheduled venues or in Portugal. Paris St Germain, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta and Rb Leipzig have already qualified for the quarter-finals.
Istanbul, which was due to host the 2020 final, will now instead be the venue for the 2021 edition, with all other scheduled hosts moving back a year.
A similar format will be used to decide the Europa League competition at German venues from august 10 to 21.
(EDITOR: TERVERR TYAV)