The title-hungry soccer stars of FC bayern munchen had to wait a long five months and 14 days for their next champions league appearance.
And now that saturday (21.00 o’clock/sky) the ruck match against FC chelsea can finally take place in the empty allianz arena, everything is to go at express speed. After the conclusion of the national leagues, the konigsklasse awakens from the corona lockdown with the four eighth-final matches still to play.
Bayern aim to crown themselves european champions in two crisp weeks. The last triple steps are to be taken by 12. Until 23. August at the "final 8 tournament" in lisbon, in order to reach the final in munich before the warm-up against the team to be played in the first leg on 25 august. February in london still defeated chelsea 3-0 in front of an audience all thoughts and plans are circling. RB leipzig is already a lock for portugal, having clinched its first quarterfinal berth against last year’s finalists tottenham hotspur even before the corona stop.
The longing place lisbon with the final stadium estadio da luz electrifies all big clubs in europe, from bayern over paris saint-germain to FC barcelona or manchester city. Definitely missing among the absolute heavyweights will be FC liverpool. Jurgen klopp and the defending champions were surprisingly eliminated in the eighth final against leipzig’s opponents atletico madrid.
Bavaria boss karl-heinz rummenigge expects "the most exciting champions league of all time" at the final round in corona’s format with a strict hygiene concept and no spectators. All eight teams that will compete in lisbon, "will be top class". Exceptionally, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be decided in only one match in the stadiums of benfica and sporting.
"Especially in tournaments, you have to be on top of your game, be there, be focused," explained experienced tournament coach flick, who was assistant to national coach joachim low when the german national team won the world championship in brazil in 2014. "We want to boost our confidence against clelsea with a good game – and then it’s off to where we all want to go," flick said full of beans.
More explosive is in the other eighth-final play-offs: cristiano ronaldo must turn around a 0:1 against olympique lyon with juventus turin on friday. Manchester city enters the gigantic duel with the congress class specialists of real madrid with a 2:1 advantage. Bayern’s possible quarterfinal opponent will be determined between lionel messi’s FC barcelona and SSC napoli. The first leg ended 1:1.
Two quarterfinal pairings are fixed: aubenseiter atalanta bergamo and dortmund-bezwinger paris saint-germain with trainer thomas tuchel will meet on 12. August opens the fubball spectacle in lisbon. One day later the leipzigers challenge atletico. The two winners will meet in the semifinals. Even without goalkeeper timo werner, who has already left for chelsea, the leipzigers have plenty of confidence in themselves. "It’s a c.O.-game, it depends on the form of the day. And it’s possible for an underdog to beat a rough one," said sports director markus krosche.
The clubs from spain, england and italy are in the game rhythm, bavaria and leipzig are attacking rested like paris. RB coach julian nagelsmann flies to portugal with his team as early as saturday to acclimatize in the coastal resort of estoril. At local anstob time at 20.00 o’clock it can still be extremely heib.
The bavarians – assuming they advance against chelsea – will travel to the algarve on sunday to put the finishing touches to their final 8 in the vacation region on the atlantic. Flick traces a strong triple spirit in his squad after winning the championship and the DFB cup: "i’m thrilled with the atmosphere that prevails in the team."The players had "not only lain on the couch" during their short vacation. Flick spurs an "absolute focus on winning" in the team around captain manuel neuer.
Another positive for bayern is that UEFA is scrapping yellow cards before the start of the tournament in lisbon. Joshua kimmich and thiago will benefit from this if they remain without a caution against chelsea. Marcel sabitzer and amadou haidara benefit from modified yellow rule at leipzig. The munich club can also rely on loan players philippe coutinho, ivan perisic and alvaro odriozola, while other clubs have lost top players. Leipzig is missing werner, manchester city is missing wing forward leroy sane, who has moved to bayern. Both national players have not yet been allowed to play for their new clubs.