The 2019-2020 season of the UEFA Champions League will finally resume on Friday, August 7, for the first time since Wednesday, 11 March 2020 when the prestigious European club competition was put on hold due to the dreaded coronavirus pandemic.
It will resume from where it stopped, the second leg of the round of 16. Recall that some teams were not able to play the second leg of the round before the pandemic forced football to a halt. Those teams – Juventus, Lyon, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Napoli, Bayern Munich, and Chelsea, will return to the pitch to complete the round from Friday, 7 August to Saturday 8 August 2020.
Here is the breakdown of the remaining Champions League last-16 fixtures
Juventus v Lyon (0-1 first leg)
The first leg ended 0-1 in favor of French Ligue 1 side Lyon. This means that when the French club visits Turin on Friday 7, a draw or a win is enough for them to scale through the round. While Juventus need to win at least 2-0 to scale through.
Manchester City v Real Madrid (2-1 first leg)
Manchester City will host Spanish La Liga giants Etihad on Friday. The visitors are expected to win at least 2-0 in order to cancel the 2-1 loss they suffered in the hands of the Premier League club in March. While a draw or a win is good enough for City to scale through.
Barcelona v Napoli (1-1 first leg)
On Saturday, 8 August, Italian Serie A club Napoli will visit Spanish La Liga giants, Barcelona for their final phase of the round. The first leg ended 1-1 which is not a bad result for Barcelona. All the Spanish club has to do on Saturday is to get a goalless draw or any form of a win. While all Napoli has to do in order to scale through is to win.
Bayern Munich v Chelsea (3-0 first leg)
Chelsea will be in Germany to see if they can perform a miracle against Bayern Munich. The last time the German Bundesliga champions visited Stamford Bridge, they left with an emphatic 0-3 victory. As it stands, Chelsea must win Bayern 4-0 before they can scale through to the next round of the Champions League.
Clubs that have already qualified for UEFA Champions League quarter-final stage
Atalanta (Italian Serie A)
UEFA ranking: 50
This season: P8 W4 D1 L3 F16 A16
Round of 16: 8-4 vs Valencia
Top scorer: Josip Iličić (5)
Last season: N/A
European Cup best: quarter-finals (2019/20 – debut season)
Atlético Madrid (Spanish La Liga)
UEFA ranking: 2
This season: P8 W5 D1 L2 F12 A7
Round of 16: 4-2 vs Liverpool
Top scorer: Álvaro Morata (3)
Last season: round of 16
European Cup best: runners-up (most recently 2015/16)
Leipzig (German Bundesliga)
UEFA ranking: 32
This season: P8 W5 D2 L1 F15 A8
Round of 16: 4-0 vs Tottenham
Top scorer: Timo Werner, Marcel Sabitzer (4)
Last season: Europa League group stage
European Cup best: quarter-finals (2019/20)
Paris Saint Germain (French Ligue 1)
UEFA ranking: 7
This season: P8 W6 D1 L1 F20 A4
Round of 16: 3-2 vs Dortmund
Top scorer: Mauro Icardi, Kylian Mbappé (5)
Last season: round of 16
European Cup best: semi-finals (1994/95)
Quarter-Final fixtures
The 2019-2020 UEFA Champions League quarter-final will take place in a tournament format instead of the usual home and away format. It will be a one-match knock out format, that is, it would not be played using the two legs format.
In June, UEFA announced that the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League would commence on 10 August 2020 in Lisbon, Portugal, the same with other rounds of the tournament including the final which would take place at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, in Lisbon on 23 August 2020.
Here are the fixtures of the quarter-final round:
Real Madrid / Man. City v Lyon / Juventus
Leipzig v Atlético
Napoli / Barcelona v Chelsea / Bayern
Atalanta v Paris
