THE rule-changes for the remainder of this season’s Champions League have been revealed.
Uefa have announced exactly how the tournament will play out – with some huge differences.
Frank Lampard won’t be able to call on Werner or Ziyech when the Champions League resumesCredit: PA:Press Association
From players eligible to length of ties, the Champions League will look hugely different when it returns.
For starters, the quarter-finals and semi-finals will no longer be two legs.
Instead, those matches will be a winner-takes-all, single leg showdown.
The games will be played in Lisbon using Sporting and Benfica’s stadiums.
The final will take place at Benfica’s ground, the Estadio Da Luz.
But remaining last-16 second legs will be played in clubs’ home stadiums as usual.
Chelsea need a miracle to even make it to Portugal, currently 3-0 down after the first-leg to Bayern Munich.
Heading to Germany for the second-leg, Blues fans would have hoped to have been able to call on new signings Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech.
But Uefa have revealed only stars who played domestically before February 3 will be eligible.
That rules out the likes of Ziyech and Werner for Chelsea as they look to overcome their three-goal deficit at the Allianz Arena.
However, teams ARE allowed to register new players, provided they played in their respective league before February.
That could mean good news for Manchester City, with Aymeric Laporte now fit following his four-month injury layoff.
As for the dates of the games, the second legs of the last-16 ties will be played AFTER the conclusion of the domestic seasons, between August 7-8.
The quarter-finals will take place between August 12-15, with the semis on August 18-19.
The final itself will go ahead on August 23 – with ALL games to start at 8pm BST.
Supercomputer predicts final Premier League table with Man Utd getting Champions League but it’s disaster for Arsenal
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
