Champions League draw has Ronaldo’s, Messi’s teams in same half

All five former Champions League winners were put into the same half of the draw on Friday, setting up a possible semifinal pairing between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Real Madrid, Juventus, Barcelona, Chelsea and Bayern Munich — who have combined to win 26 European Cups — will whittle down one side of the draw to reach the final Aug. 23 at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon.

The other side will see three-time finalist Atlético Madrid face Leipzig and Paris Saint-Germain meet Atalanta. Leipzig and Atalanta are newcomers to this stage.

The single-leg quarterfinal matches will be played on four straight evenings from Aug. 12-15 to start a mini-tournament without fans in Portugal. The semifinals are Aug. 17-18.

Four quarterfinalists are still to be decided, all involving the former champions. Those four outstanding games will be played Aug. 7-8, hosted by the home teams: Barcelona, Bayern, Juventus and Man City.

The other half of the draw was much more straightforward with all four quarterfinalists set before the coronavirus pandemic shut down European soccer.

The single-leg quarterfinals and semifinals were drawn Friday, putting Ronaldo and his Juventus teammates on course to meet Messi and Barcelona.

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson will miss the rest of the season because of a left knee injury, manager Jürgen Klopp said Friday. The England midfielder was hurt in the second half of the 3-1 win at Brighton in the Premier League on Wednesday. Klopp said Henderson will not require surgery.

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