Posted by Following a meeting of UEFA’s executive committee on Wednesday, Uefa has announced that the Champions League will be completed as a mini-competition from the quarterfinal onward, with Benfica’s Estadio da Luz and Sporting’s Estadio Jose Alvalade being used to stage the games.
The competition is set to resume following an extended break due to the coronavirus pandemic with four of the eight Round of 16 second-leg ties still left to be played.
The remaining second-leg matches will be played on August 7-8, with a decision still to be made on whether they will take place at the home team’s stadiums or in Portugal.
The draw for the quarter-final round will be held at UEFA headquarters on July 10 with the federation laying out the match schedule at that time.
The mini-tournament will run from Aug. 12-23 and Lisbon will host the final rather than Istanbul, as originally planned.
This comes in after the Turkish government had expressed reservations last month about staging the game because of the pandemic, which has led to ongoing restrictions of international travel into the country.
Istanbul, which was originally selected to host this year’s final, will now host in 2021 with St Petersburg hosting in 2022, Munich in 2023 and Wembley in 2024 as host cities have seen their duties pushed back by one year.
Meanwhile, the Europa League quarterfinals, semifinals and the final will be played as an eight-team knockout tournament in the German cities of Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen between Aug. 10-21.
UEFA also confirmed that teams in both competitions can add three players to their squads for the remaining matches, though the players must be already registered at the club.
The Women’s Champions League will be completed Aug. 21-30 in Spain, also as single-legged games. Matches will be split between San Sebastian and Bilbao.
The group stage of next year’s Champions league will kick off on October 20-21 and wrap up on December 8-9.
