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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Alex Young

Liverpool vs RB Leipzig venue: Why is Champions League tie being played in Budapest stadium?

Liverpool and RB Leipzig will once again face off at the Puskas Arena in Budapest as their Champions League last-16 is decided.

The first leg was also held in Hungary, with Leipzig the ‘hosts’ and Liverpool winning 2-0 as the away team at the stadium.

The Reds will tonight take on the role of hosts, with the tie continuing with the away goals rule despite both games being played at the same location.

Ahead of the first leg, the German government banned Liverpool - or any UK team - entry into the country due to concerns over new strains of coronavirus present in the UK.

Similarly, travel restrictions the opposite way meant Leipzig would have needed to quarantine upon their return to Germany if the second leg was held at Anfield.

When asked about his thoughts on the stadium, Jurgen Klopp said: “Brilliant, really brilliant. It’s a great stadium. Inside it looks a little bit like Atletico Madrid’s stadium, which felt good to us to be honest!

“The pitch was great, it’s a proper football stadium, and I’m pretty sure if it’s sold out in the future it will create some proper atmosphere.

“Thank you very much Budapest for having us. We don’t take things like this for granted. In these times we did everything we could do to keep everybody as safe as possible, and I’m pretty sure it worked out.

“Even if we’d lost the game, the stadium was still great!”

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