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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Lisbon tipped to host UEFA's eight-team Champions League mini-tournament

Lisbon has reportedly emerged as the favourite to host UEFA's revamped eight-team Champions League tournament in August, if it can be given the go-ahead.

With no Portuguese teams left in the competition and the nation's coronavirus restrictions soon to ease, the capital could host one-legged quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final at their two major stadiums in the city, which are home to Benfica and Sporting Lisbon.

The final had initially been planned for Istanbul on May 30, but UEFA are now keen to finish the competition with a mini-tournament in the same host city in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

BBC Sport also report that the latter stages of the Europa League, the final of which was set for Gdansk in Poland, could now be set to take place in Germany.

The Stadium of Light hosted the Champions League final in 2014 (Getty Images)

The Bundesliga's top two divisions were the first two major leagues to restart in the wake of the crisis, and games could take place in Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, Duisberg and Dusseldorf to bring Europe's second-tier tournament to an end.

It is thought that a range of options are currently being discussed over how best to end both tournaments, although there is the complication over the last-16 ties that are halfway through.

In the Champions League, Manchester City lead Real Madrid 2-1 after their first leg at the Bernabeu, while Lyon lead Juventus 1-0, Napoli and Barcelona drew 1-1 in Naples and Bayern Munich beat Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester City won 2-1 at the Bernabeu in February (Getty Images)

Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig, Atalanta and Atletico Madrid are the four teams through to the last eight.

Manchester United and Wolves are among the clubs halfway through their Europa League ties, with two of those ties yet to even begin.

UEFA are said to prefer that all of these matches take place in the same venues as the last eight, but clubs are likely to reluctant to give up home advantage in fine-balanced matches.

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