The Champions League is almost upon us and one of the most captivating encounters is between Manchester City and Real Madrid. The last return game sees Zinedine Zidane bring her team to Etihad Stadium with the daunting task of reversing a 1-2 deficit at home, although the new restrictions on coronavirus placed on arrivals from Spain had raised some doubts about the match .
City-Madrid gets green light in the UK
The game is set for August 7, but Saturday night there were concerns that the game might move to a neutral venue or that Zidane and others would have to be quarantined for two weeks before they could play Manchester.
However, on Sunday, the UK government confirmed through various media that the game could continue as expected.
The Department for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) said Sky Sports News that “the current guidelines remain in place to allow selected elite international sporting events to take place this summer”.
These guidelines provide for it “exempted people will live and work in” bubbling “environments controlled behind closed doors” and that this applies to “sports stars, event officials, coaches, doctors, mechanics and incoming members of the media”.
UEFA has already given the go-ahead to the exceptional second leg played on the appropriate pitch rather than at a suggested neutral venue. The governing body of European football has, however, retained the right to change this, stating that “UEFA will continue to monitor the situation and reserves the right to reassign these matches in the places of the final tournament of the competition in question if new events occur which would make it impossible to play one or more games in the original places. “
The quarter-finals already confirmed are Atalanta vs Paris Saint-Germain (12 August) and RB Leipzig vs Atletico Madrid (13 August). Other clashes, besides City-Madrid are: Juventus vs Lyon (7 August), Barcelona vs Naples (8 August) and Bayern Munich vs Chelsea (8 August).
