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Champions League ‘Final Eight’ kicks off as PSG and Atalanta clash in
Lisbon
LISBON, Aug 12, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Four months behind schedule because of
the coronavirus pandemic, the Champions League has reached the quarter-final
stage with Paris Saint-Germain taking on outsiders Atalanta in Lisbon on
Wednesday in the first game of the ‘Final Eight’.
A straight knockout final tournament held in one place, akin to a World Cup
or European Championship, was the only solution available to UEFA in order to
complete its most lucrative club competition, suspended for five months from
March until last weekend.
Two-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals have been done away with, and all
eight teams have come to Lisbon, where they are following strict health
guidelines including regular testing. No spectators are allowed inside
stadiums.
PSG will therefore meet Atalanta at an empty Estadio da Luz on Wednesday at
1900 GMT, with the winners advancing to a semi-final against either Atletico
Madrid or RB Leipzig, who play on Thursday.
The other quarter-finals are Barcelona against Bayern Munich — the only
clubs still in the competition to have won it before — and Manchester City
against Lyon.
The final will be on August 23, and UEFA can only hope there is no
widespread outbreak of COVID-19 among any of the teams which could threaten
the tournament.
European football’s governing body has said that as long as a team has 13
healthy players including a goalkeeper, matches must go ahead, otherwise
teams risk forfeiting matches.
There was a scare at the weekend when it was revealed two Atletico players
had tested positive, but their squad has travelled to Portugal and their game
is set to go ahead.
Before that match, PSG will look to reach the semi-finals for the first
time since the Qatari takeover almost a decade ago and they were given a
boost on the eve of their match against Atalanta as Kylian Mbappe was
declared fit enough to play a part by coach Thomas Tuchel.
“If he trains well on Tuesday evening and nothing extraordinary happens,
he will be in the team on Wednesday,” Tuchel said.
Mbappe was left in a race against time to be fit for the start of the
‘Final Eight’ after suffering a sprained ankle in PSG’s French Cup final win
over Saint-Etienne on July 24.
– ‘Extra motivation’ –
Opponents Atalanta — with an annual wage bill for their entire squad
believed to be equivalent to Neymar’s salary for the year at PSG — are in
the Champions League for the first time.
The Italians are fresh from finishing third in Serie A and are spurred on
by the terrible suffering of their home city of Bergamo at the peak of the
pandemic earlier this year.
“There is extra motivation for us after what has happened. We have to
represent our city in the best possible way and give the people something to
smile about,” said the Atalanta coach, Gian Piero Gasperini, on Tuesday.
The final of this season’s Champions League was initially due to be played
in Istanbul in late May before it was postponed and this new format
introduced.
Usually such an event would see a huge influx of foreign fans but the
atmosphere in Lisbon this time is rather different, even if some supporters
have travelled and one study has estimated 16,000 will come in total over the
next 10 days.
“The atmosphere is bizarre. The city seems empty and the bars close
early,” one Atalanta fan, who plans to watch the match in a bar, told AFP.
Restrictions remain in place in and around Lisbon in an attempt to stop a
resurgence of the virus.
Those include limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people and banning
alcohol consumption in public, while shops and cafes must close at 8:00pm,
the time matches will kick off.
BSS/AFP/MSY/0925 hrs
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