CL knockout stages begin under COVID-19 cloud

PARIS: This week the glamour of a tie between Barcelona and Paris Saint-germain heralds the dawn of the Champions League knockout phase, but the world’s most lucrative and compelling club competition returns still overshadowed by the coronavirus crisis as well as by looming changes to the tournament itself.

Four years ago, when PSG last visited the Camp Nou, they arrived with a 4-0 first-leg advantage and let eliminated ater a 6-1 defeat on a night the 96,000 spectators present will never forget.

On Tuesday Neymar, now with the Parisians, will miss the return to his old home due to injury. The fans will be missing too, yet the spectacle of a huge European game going ahead behind closed doors due to Covid-19 restrictions is no longer so unusual.

What is new is the extent to which travel bans are creating havoc and have already forced UEFA to switch several ties to neutral venues.

RB Leipzig have been denied home advantage in their first leg against Liverpool on Tuesday due to a ban by German authorities on travellers from the UK.

That game now goes ahead in Budapest, which will also host Borussia Moenchengladbach against Manchester City the following week.

Similar restrictions on travellers from Britain entering Spain have forced Atletico Madrid’s first leg at home to Chelsea to be moved 3,000 kilometres to Bucharest.

“A last-16 Champions League tie is a huge event for Borussia Moenchengladbach, which we now cannot play in our own ground or with any fans in atendance,” admited Gladbach CEO Stephan Schippers.

“Nevertheless, we’re pleased that we can play the game at all and we are of conscious of the overall situation.”

It may be football in an empty stadium, oten on neutral ground, but the Champions League knockout stages remain the absolute pinnacle of the club game, the theatre in which so many memorable matches have been played in recent times.

Even last year’s ‘Final Eight’ behind closed doors in Lisbon produced Bayern Munich’s stunning 8-2 mauling of Barcelona and Manchester City’s shock loss to Lyon.

But this time it is impossible to ignore the spectre of change hanging over the Champions League, with UEFA clearly prepared to cede more and more ground to the continent’s biggest clubs in order to prevent a breakaway ‘Super League’ coming to fruition.

There is widespread support for plans to revamp the group stage from 2024, as has been reported across the continent in recent days.