The players of the eight clubs still in contention for the quarter-finals of the Champions League are all hard at work, cordoned off in hotels spread across Portugal, to avoid the risk of contamination. All will be tested multiple times, in order to avoid the health disaster haunting the nights of Aleksander Ceferin, the Slovenian president of UEFA, who has taken the responsibility of organizing this final phase in an unprecedented format.
Quarter-finals behind closed doors
Since Saturday August 8 and the qualification of Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona, the last invited to this funny party, the guest list is complete. The four knockout quarter-finals, without a second leg, are on the program for Portuguese evenings between Wednesday August 12 and Saturday 15, one per evening, with Paris SG-Bergamo for the appetizer.
→ ANALYSIS. Football, health concerns for the resumption of the championship
All the matches will be played behind closed doors, that is to say with assistance limited to the minimum of the technical actors of a football match: players, coaches, referees, medical staff, ball collectors and… journalists sorted on the blind.
This will not prevent the public from roaring fictitiously in front of the television screens, since applications developed since the start of the epidemic make it possible to adapt the rumor of the stands to the course of the actions.
The only common point between this tournament and the habits of the European Cup, an old lady founded in 1955, is that the quarter-finals will lead to two semi-finals. So far Monsieur de La Palice would have found nothing to complain about. Except that these two halves will also take place in Lisbon, as will the final.
The French paradox
Historical in its operation, this Champions League is also by the guest list: two German clubs, two Spanish, one English, one Italian and… two French: Lyon and Paris SG. Since the introduction of the current Champions League format in 2003-2004 (a group stage, followed by two-way matches from the round of 16), this has only happened four times. Finding once again illustrating the French paradox, very strong in the performance of its national team, very average in the results of its clubs on the European level.
Lyon succeeds in bringing down Juventus
According to Opta Sports, a company specializing in sports statistics, France has been represented 15 times in the quarter-finals since 2003-2004, against 34 times for Spain, 33 for England, 20 for Italy and 19 for the ‘Germany. The last of the five major championships on the scale of the UEFA index, calibrating each country according to performance in the various European competitions, France is far from being the club world champion. And again, it owes its place to a small number of teams, roughly the two present in Portugal this week: Paris SG and Lyon.
Paris and Lyon eight times in the quarter-finals
The Parisian team has occupied the front of the French poster since 2011 and its acquisition by a Qatari investment fund, but has never managed to qualify for the semi-finals, the only guarantee for a Parisian coach to keep his seat .
Lyon’s European career is more distant, but more brilliant. Present four times in the quarter-finals like the Parisians, the Lyonnais managed to qualify once in the semi-finals, in 2010, the Parisians’ minimum objective for the fiftieth anniversary of the club created in 1970 and which has never succeeded in making it slip into the last square under the Qatari era. A defeat on Wednesday August 12 against Atalanta Bergamo, arguably the weakest quarter-finalist with Leipzig, would be a sporting and financial disaster.
“One in a million chance”
On the contrary, Lyon will not have much to lose and everything to gain on Saturday 15th against Manchester City, Real Madrid scorer in the eighth. After their defeat in the Coupe de la Ligue final, the Rhone have lost any chance of qualifying for the Champions League in view of their results in France this year. Their only chance to compete in the big ear cup next year is to win it this year!
Suffice to say that the probabilities, “One chance in a million”, according to Lyon President Jean-Michel Aulas, are more than weak. About as much as those of seeing the two French clubs involved meet in the final, Sunday 23, a theoretically possible scenario with regard to the configuration of the table of matches.
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The Champions League program
Wednesday August 12. Atalanta Bergamo-Paris SG, 9 p.m.
Thursday 13. RB Leipzig-Atletico Madrid, 9 p.m.
Friday 14. Bayern Munich-FC Barcelona, 9 p.m.
Saturday 15. Manchester City-Lyon, 9 p.m.
Semi-finals. Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19.
Finale. Sunday 23.
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