THE mouth-watering Champions League clash between Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain WILL go ahead — despite a French coronavirus curfew.
France president Emmanuel Macron last night declared a four-week state of emergency — with a 9pm-6am curfew in nine cities, including Paris — starting on Sunday.
Manchester United’s Champions League clash against PSG will go aheadCredit: EPA
United begin their European campaign at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday and there were initial fears the game may have to be moved to POLAND.
But after contacting the French Football Federation, a Uefa spokesman said: “We have been told the curfew doesn’t apply to professional sporting events.”
The strict State of Emergency measure was applied to Paris, Lille, Rouen, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence and Montpellier.
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And the move will affect around 18million people.
All bars, restaurants, theatres and similar businesses will be forced to shut at 9pm sharp from Saturday – but a full national lockdown is not expected.
“We’re in a second wave,” Macron said in an interview on national television.
“We have to react.”
On Wednesday France reported 22,591 new coronavirus cases, the third time in six days the daily tally has gone beyond the 20,000 threshold.
More than 32,000 people have now died from the bug in France.
SunSport also reported how United’s new signing Edinson Cavani could be in line for a sensational debut against his old club.
Cavani has had to self isolate for a fortnight since joining the Red Devils on transfer deadline day as a free agent.
That rules him out of this weekend’s trip to Newcastle but he will be allowed to make the trip back to Paris on Monday for Tuesday’s Champions League showdown.
Cavani, 33, has been training at home in Manchester to get up to speed and is likely to be on the bench in the Parc des Princes but with every chance of him coming on for an emotional late substitute appearance even without the fans.
The veteran Uruguayan striker scored 200 goals in 301 games for PSG between 2013 and this year but was let go in the summer when his contract ran out.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk