Is it time for a new European champion?

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Rivals fancy their chances as Bayern and Barca, the only two past champions left, face-off in the quarters

LISBON: The Champions League moves to Lisbon this week for the start of the ‘final eight’ with the intriguing prospect of a new name on the trophy. All eight quarter-finalists are now camped in the Portuguese capital, where the business end of the tournament will be completed at breakneck speed—quarters, semis and the final, all in 12 days—an unprecedented solution to a season that was interrupted by the pandemic. The final is at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz on Aug 23.

The ‘final eight’ will start at the same ground on Wednesday when Atalanta face PSG. Whoever wins will meet Leipzig or Atletico for a place in the final, while Man City or Lyon will meet Bayern or Barcelona in the other semi-final.

These are quarterfinals without most of the elite—with only two former winners remaining. And the draw has pitted Bayern Munich and Barcelona—both five-time champions—against each other in the quarterfinal on Friday. Just one of the remaining six teams—Atletico—has even made it to a final before, losing to Real Madrid in 2016. Only two other quarterfinalists have reached semi-finals: PSG and Man City. This is only the second appearance in the Champions League for Leipzig, who play Atletico on Thursday, and the first time the Red Bull-backed German side is in the knockout phase. “It’s the biggest moment in the club’s history,” Leipzig sporting director Markus Krosche said. “It’s a hard competition.”

City and PSG both have reason to believe this will be the year they are rewarded for a decade of decadence fuelled by the immense wealth of their Gulfbased owners (see graphic for the financial gap between them and the other quarter-finalists). Atalanta are the minnows and it would be a remarkable story if they won the trophy in their first appearance in the League after the terrible suffering of their hometown Bergamo during the pandemic. Atalanta reached the final eight with an 8-4 aggregate victory over Valencia in the round of 16. The first leg took place on Feb. 19 in Milan and has been dubbed “Game Zero” because of the spread of the disease that followed both in northern Italy and in Spain.

Perhaps Atletico, back where they lost the 2014 final to Real, will at last go the extra step under Diego Simeone. Even though they had to endure the shock of players Angel Correa and Sime Vrsaljko testing positive for the virus over the weekend, almost everything has fallen into place for Atleti.

Atletico are glowing with confidence after knocking holders Liverpool out in March and going on a resurgent run of form at the end of the season, with their top players in peak condition. They are also in the easier side of the draw and safe in the knowledge that their bete noire Real Madrid, who beat Atletico in the 2014 and 2016 finals and knocked them out in 2015 and 2017, are no longer in the competition.

While Atletico will not be taking Leipzig lightly, facing the Germans and a potential last-four meeting with PSG or Atalanta is certainly preferable to playing Barcelona, Bayern or City.

This has been an eventful season for Atletico, who at one stage looked as if they would be lucky to make it into La Liga’s top four as they struggled to cope with the departure of Antoine Griezmann and Diego Godin. But their twin victories over Liverpool proved a turning point and the team were relentless when the season resumed, winning seven of their 11 league matches to finish third.

Atleti’s resurgence has been propelled by an unlikely figure in Marcos Llorente, who made a thrilling transformation from defensive midfield to attack, slaying Liverpool before leading the team’s forward line after the restart. They have also benefited from the renewed sharpness of Diego Costa and Yannick Carrasco, while they have one of the best goalkeepers in the world in Jan Oblak.