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With all of the five major European soccer leagues back in action — well, except for France, who decided to pull the plug on Ligue One WAY too earlier — UEFA has announced its official plans to resume the 2019-20 Champions League season with a bonkers 12-day tournament in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Champions League tournament, which will begin with the Round of 16 second-legs on August 7 and will run until the final on Saturday, August 23. The teams currently still alive in the Champions League are Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Napoli, Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon, Atalanta, Chelsea, and Manchester City, with a handful of those teams still needing to complete their Round of 16 match-ups.
The current defending champions, Liverpool, were knocked out by Atletico Madrid just prior to the global shutdown in mid-March. At this time, the bookies have Manchester City and Bayern Munich as the co-favorites of the tournament. Behind them sit Paris Saint-Germain in third and Barcelona in fourth.
Below, you can find the full tournament schedule:
-Round of 16 second legs: Aug. 7-8 (venues TBD)
-Champions League draw: Mid-July in Nyon, Switzerland
-Quarterfinal round: Aug. 12-15 in Lisbon
-Semifinal round: Tuesday, Aug. 18 and Wednesday, Aug. 19 in Lisbon
-Champions League final: Sunday, Aug. 23 in Lisbon
The announcement of the Champions League returns comes on the same day that the Premier League returns in England, as Sheffield United is set to take on Aston Villa followed by Arsenal against Manchester City. Then, this weekend will set the Premier League return to action in full.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or contact him eric@brobible.com