The 2019-20 UEFA Champions League is finally set to wrap up in August, and it looks as if the organization’s plans to host the rest of the tournament in Lisbon, Portugal will have a small asterisk next to it.
While some of the Champions League Round of 16 matchups were able to be completed before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, others were left unfinished after only one draw was played.
UEFA has decided that instead of playing these remaining Round of 16 games in Lisbon like they will with the rest of the matches, they will instead be played at each team’s host stadium.
This means that Manchester City will host Real Madrid, Bayern Munich will host Chelsea, Juventus will host Lyon, and Barcelona will host Napoli in early August before the winning teams travel to Lisbon to join Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Atalanta, and RB Leipzig.
The same rule will be applied to the UEFA Europa League as well, which was left in the same situation as the Champions League.
While the games will be played in teams’ home stadiums, the matches will be held behind closed doors.
So, at least teams will now know that they won’t have to “forfeit” a home game if they were unable to finish their Round of 16 draw in March.