With the four remaining round of 16 completed over the weekend, the finals of the renewed Champions League kick off this week with the quarter-finals in Portugal.
The final eight clubs head to Lisbon, where a sprint to the title will follow. At the end of the race to the final from 12 to 23 August, the European club champion will be crowned under abnormal circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic caused the Champions League to be suspended as national seasons concluded, and the result is an altered format, in which all eight teams are in one city for single-leg matchups instead of the more usual two played at the sites. home .
The quarter-finals will feature one game each played over the course of four days starting Wednesday, with the matches, in order, as follows: Atalanta vs PSG, Atletico Madrid vs RB Leipzig, Barcelona vs Bayern Munich, Manchester City vs Lyon.
The winner of the first two games and the last two games, respectively, will meet in the semi-finals on August 18 and 19 before the final on August 23.
Here’s how the eight contenders stack up and who is best placed to lift the trophy and reach the most unusual of seasons in Europe:
1. BAYERN MUNICH
Quarter-final: v Barcelona, Friday, 3pm ET
Saturday’s 4-1 win against Chelsea was Bayern’s 26th win in their last 27 games. Ever since Hansi Flick replaced Niko Kovac, the old ruthlessness and bravado has returned and Bayern appear to be by far the best team in Europe.
Each department of the team looks strong. Manuel Neuer may not be the player he was, but he remains a formidable goalkeeper. David Alaba and Jerome Boateng were both rejuvenated by Alaba’s pass to center after the emergence of Alphonso Davies at left back. Joshua Kimmich and Thiago Alcantara are in control of possession, and there is exceptional pace in the attacking areas, as well as the best center forward in the world in current form, Robert Lewandowski. Bayern also press better than anyone else. His path is difficult – Barcelona and potentially Manchester City to reach the final – but there’s no denying that he’s the top left and the one with a hat-trick in their sights.
2. MANCHESTER CITY
Quarter-finals: v Lyon, Saturday, 3pm ET
With the ball Manchester City remains an excellent team, even if perhaps the ruthlessness in front of goal that Sergio Aguero would have had completely recovered from knee surgery is missing.
In two games, Man City completely dominated Real Madrid, with Gabriel Jesus leading the press while Kevin De Bruyne pulled the strings in midfield. Doubt is where he’s on the defensive. City have a glass jaw against teams that can break their press. Pep Guardiola’s teams have gotten into the habit of losing important games due to balls being played behind the baseline – and this season the problem has also occurred against mid- and low-level teams.
3. ATHLETIC MADRID
Quarter-final match: v RB Leipzig, Thursday, 3pm ET
The two positive coronavirus tests revealed on Sunday – to Sime Vrsaljko and Angel Correa – are a possible complication, but assuming they don’t assume a broader infection within the squad, Atletico are in a far better position than what it would have been if the quarter-finals were over. forward as originally planned in March.
He was going through another frustrating season of transitioning to a seemingly more progressive approach and seemed in danger of losing the top four positions in La Liga. Since the game resumed, however, he has won seven games and drawn four out of 11 games and once again resembles his solid family self, backed by a third place finish in Spain. Given the frequency with which he was knocked out by Real Madrid, it must also be a boost to have gone further in the competition than his city rival for the first time since 1996-97. Tackling an RB Leipzig team that staggered to the finish in the Bundesliga and won’t have Timo Werner and avoiding the likes of Bayern, Man City or Barcelona until the final are also an advantage for Diego Simeone’s side.
4. ATALANTA
Quarter-final: Vs PSG, Wednesday, 3pm ET
Despite there being only two former champions left, Atalanta are the only team left that really oppose mega-finance, and there is also a romance in the way they play. Maybe Gian Piero Gasperini’s tremendous pressure and attack are unsustainable in the long run, but it’s fun while it lasts, and it’s easy to imagine Paris Saint-Germain shaken by Atalanta’s intensity, partly because everyone is, and in part because no team in France would ever dare to play against it like that.
5. PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN
Quarter-final: against Atalanta, Wednesday at 3pm ET
PSG have never advanced beyond the Champions League semi-finals and never advanced beyond the Qatari-owned quarters. Nowhere, perhaps, feels the pressure of expectations of success so acutely. PSG is almost ridiculously dominant in France – there hadn’t been a single French international triple up to six years ago, since PSG won four – and that seems to count against high-class European opposition, because they simply don’t it used to be challenged. That his squad is strong enough to win the Champions League, even with doubts about injuries on Kylian Mbappe, is no doubt; the question is whether Thomas Tuchel organized and disciplined it enough to cope with an unknown threat.
6. BARCELONA
Quarter-final: v Bayern Munich, Friday, 3pm ET
Although Lionel Messi exists, anything is possible, but this is the weak Barcelona that has been there in at least a decade and a half. The squad, on which large sums have been spent, is inconsistent, the midfield often stretched by an attacking line that is no longer able or willing to press.
Antoine Griezmann should have added work rate to those top three, but he hasn’t joined Messi and Luis Suarez and looks less effective by cutting out from the left. The manager, Quique Setien, was, at best, the third choice after Ernesto Valverde, who had won the La Liga title in his previous two seasons at the club, was sacked despite Barcelona being at the top of the table in that moment. More and more, it seems the problem was less the manager than the players and administrators who hired them.
The road in Portugal is also terribly demanding, with a test against Bayern Munich in the lead.
7. RB LEIPZIG
Quarter-finals: v Atletico Madrid, Thursday, 3 p.m. ET
Leipzig have been superb in eliminating Tottenham in the round of 16 and could have put together a serious Bundesliga challenge this season, but out of a habit of drawing matches they should have won.
That failure to take the risk will not have been helped by the exit of Werner, sold to Chelsea and – shamefully – allowed to leave his new club before the end of this season with his ex. Julian Nagelsmann remains an excellent coach at the helm of a beautiful squad, but without Werner from the left, Leipzig will not have the same threat.
8. LYON
Quarter-final: v Manchester City, Saturday, 3 p.m. ET
Lyon finished seventh in Ligue 1 last season, which gives some indication of how surprising it is that they have come this far – and also how bad the kickback was for Juventus in the round of 16. Rudi Garcia has created a sound defensive team (less than one goal conceded in a league game and no more than two leaked in a Champions League game this season), and the postponement of the competition means that Memphis Depay, who has suffered a severe knee injury in December, is unable to participate.
The abandonment of the French league means that Lyon have barely played recently, but the two games have succeeded: a loss on penalties to PSG in the Coupe de la Ligue final after 0-0 and a 2-1 defeat with Juve leading the club through the away goal tiebreaker – suggests a certain determination. This can only bring one team so far, though, and a quarter-final date against Man City will test that determination.
.
