08/07/2020 - 9:30
- Clarín.com
- sports
The most important club tournament in the world will have an unusual final stretch, according to current times. Without an audience, with some rematches of the round of 16 that were pending and with a collective move to reduce the risks and start with a series of kill-kill that will lead to the grand final on August 23. A month and a half to pure Champions League. The curtain reopens. And although the setting is very different from the traditional one, all the great actors will go in search of the Orejona.
The activity will resume this Friday with two rematch matches of the round of 16. The series between Juventus-Lyon and Manchester City-Real Madrid were interrupted by the stoppage due to the coronavirus.
On February 26 at the French Groupama Stadium, Lyon beat Juve 1-0 at home with Lucas Tousart's goal in the 31st minute of the first half. Statistics indicate that after losing the first leg of a Champions League tie, the Italian champion managed to reverse five of his eleven crosses, including the most recent one, in the knockout stages of the previous edition against Atlético de Madrid of Cholo Simeone . At the same time, Lyon have failed to win in their last 10 away games in defining series, with two draws and eight losses.
Cristiano Ronaldo comes from winning Serie A and goes for his sixth Orejona. Photo: AFP
The rematch will be this Friday from 4pm at Juventus Stadium on Fox Sports.
Simultaneous and on ESPN2, one of the most anticipated clashes will be played in Manchester. Real Madrid's Zinedine Zidane, brand-new League champion, will try to turn the series against Josep Guardiola's team.
The Magician Zidane has three Champions like DT of Real Madrid. Photo: DPA
The first leg, played on February 26 at the Santiago Bernabéu, was a victory for the English 2-1 with goals from Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne, on penalties. He had opened the Isco account for the meringues. "If there is a team capable of turning this type of series it is Real Madrid," Pep anticipated.
It will be the third clash between these teams at the Etihad Stadium: the previous ones were draws: 1-1 in the group stage of the 2012-2013 season and 0-0 in the first leg of the 2015-2016 semifinals. There is an impossible fact to overlook: Zidane never lost a knockout series in the Champions League: he ended up celebrating in the nine he led. For the appointment on Friday, Zizou will not have his referent and captain, Sergio Ramos, sent off in the first leg.
On Saturday the round of 16 will be completed with two other series that were left unfinished by the pandemic. The main course will be at the Camp Nou (at 16 on ESPN2) where Lionel Messi's Barcelona will seek to leave behind the internal crisis that left him without a League at the hands of Real Madrid and straighten the course thinking of his desire to win the Champions League .
A scene from the first leg: it was 1-1 in Italy between Napoli and Barcelona. AFP
A hinge is proposed for the culé team and especially for his coach Quique Setién, who arrives questioned and without too much room for a new setback.
In the first leg, played on February 25 in Naples, they drew 1-1: Dries Mertens opened the score for those of Gennaro Gattuso and Antoine Griezmann equalized for the Catalans, who ended up more satisfied by the result than by the performance.
At the Camp Nou, the zero draw is enough for Barcelona to get a ticket towards the final stretch in Lisbon. But the present of the team does not allow to imagine a simple definition.
It will be Napoli's first time at the Camp Nou for a Champions League match. There the Spanish team is usually lethal in the heads-up: they surpassed the last 19 rounds in which they had not lost the first leg shock played as a visitor. The last fall in that context occurred in the 2002-2003 edition against Juventus: it was 1-1 in Turin and 1-2 at home.
In addition, Barsa have accumulated 35 games (31 wins and 4 draws) without defeats at home in the Champions League, which represents the second best streak in history, behind Bayern Munich, which reached 43 undefeated matches.
Lewandowski, Bayern Munich striker who swept the Bundesliga. Photo: Reuters
Precisely the Germans will be the protagonists of the other round of 16 clash on Saturday, also at 16 and by Fox Sports. A series that only seemed to need the final stamp heading to the quarterfinals since in the first leg, played on February 25, the Germans beat Chelsea 3-0 in England.
It reaches a data to size what could be a volantazo in the series: never in the history of the tournament (92 occasions) they turned the tie to a team that had won by three or more goals the first leg as a visitor.
The story will continue in Lisbon, the stage chosen by UEFA to arm its "bubble" and define the tournament with a lightning fast stretch, one game per crossing.
The draw already left some certainties: on Wednesday the 12th it will be the first quarterfinal meeting between the surprising Atalanta and the powerful PSG. The Italians come from finishing in the third location of Serie A a dream season but are encouraged more in front of a French team that paraded on their land and has just lifted the French Cup. He won all four local competitions he played: Ligue 1, French Cup, French League Cup and French Super Cup.
Papu Gómez is the Messi of Atalanta. Photo: EFE
The match will be played at the Estadio Da Luz, owned by Benfica, with a capacity for 64,642 spectators and which, obviously, as in all the remaining matches, will appear without an audience due to the coronavirus.
In PSG the great unknown for these hours is to know if his figure, Kylian Mbappé, will arrive in conditions, due to a strong sprain in his right ankle. “The recovery period is super short. We have decided to make an analysis of the situation on Saturday with the doctor, to find out if it is possible that he is on the bench against Atalanta. But I don't expect too much ... ", admitted coach Thomas Tuchel.
On Thursday the 13th at 4pm it will be the turn of Atlético de Madrid by Diego Simeone. The Cholo team is seduced by this unexpected definition format for a single match and they know that they were on the side of the table, in the previous one, less complicated.
"We are going to give our lives to conquer the title", anticipated Diego Costa. The quarterfinal clash will be against Leipzig, which comes from sweeping Tottenham in the second round, with victories in both games.
Cholo stayed with the desire in the two finals lost to Real Madrid and wants this time to be Aleti's. EFE
The German team, founded in 2009, played for the first time in the most important club tournament in the world in the 2017-2018 edition, but did not pass the group stage. The same thing happened the following season. Now those led by Nagelsmann know that they have already made history and want more. They come from third in the Bundesliga, the same position that Aleti reached in the Spanish tournament.
The winner of this crossing, which will be played at the José Alvalade stadium, where Sporting Lisbon plays host, will collide in the semifinals against the winner of Atalanta-PSG on August 18.
On the other side of the picture the cuckoos appear. On Friday August 14 from 4pm the winner of the series between Barcelona-Napoli and Chelsea-Bayern Munich will meet at the Estadio Da Luz.
A day later, on Saturday the 15th at 4pm, it will be the last quarterfinal match between the winner of Manchester City-Real Madrid and the winner of Lyon-Juventus at the José Alvalade stadium. The winners of these crosses will play the other semifinal on August 19.
The definition of the contest will be on Sunday, August 23 from 4:00 pm at the Estadio Da Luz.
MFV
