NYON: The Champions League final is heading to Lisbon, with UEFA planning an Aug. 23 final to cap seven broadcast nights in a 12-day span of elite European teams playing knockout soccer.
The widely reported UEFA wish to hold an eight-team knockout bracket in two empty stadiums in Portugal’s capital was confirmed in reports Monday by broadcaster Sky Italia.
UEFA’s executive committee must agree on the plan on Wednesday among a series of decisions to reschedule international soccer — for Europe’s clubs and national teams — after the coronavirus pandemic upended the global sports calendar.
The most prized trophy in club soccer will be decided in a rare Sunday final at Benfica’s Stadium of Light. It was originally to be on Saturday, May 30 at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, but UEFA looked elsewhere when that city was no longer practical.
Semifinals will be shared by the Stadium of Light and the nearby home stadium of Sporting Lisbon on Aug. 18-19. Four quarterfinals are planned on consecutive nights from Aug. 12-15, Sky Italia reported.
Four quarterfinals places have yet to be decided, and the UEFA executive panel must decide on Wednesday where to schedule second-leg games in the round of 16 that were postponed in March.
Those games could also go to Lisbon or be played without fans in the home stadiums of Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Manchester City.
The Europa League mini-tournament is set to be shared by four cities in western Germany with Cologne hosting the final on Friday, Aug. 21. It was meant to be on Wednesday, May 27 in Gdansk, Poland.
The second-tier competition also paused at the round of 16 in March. Six first-leg games were played and two more — Inter Milan-Getafe and Roma-Sevilla — could not be played in Italy when that country was hit hard by coronavirus cases.
UEFA to pick Lisbon as Champions League knockout rounds host
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UEFA to pick Lisbon as Champions League knockout rounds host
- UEFA’s executive committee must agree on the plan on Wednesday
- The Europa League mini-tournament is set to be shared by four cities in western Germany
Djokovic edges Kovacevic to reach Indian Wells last 16
- With five Indian Wells titles Djokovic is tied for the record with Swiss great Roger Federer
INDIAN WELLS, United States: Novak Djokovic clawed out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 victory over 72nd-ranked American Aleksandar Kovacevic on Monday to reach the fourth round at Indian Wells for the first time since 2017.
Djokovic, playing his first tournament since falling to Carlos Alcaraz in the Australian Open final, had all he could handle from the 27-year-old New Yorker, who peppered the Serb superstar with 16 aces.
Djokovic made an early break stand up to take the first set, but Kovacevic had found his groove and rolled through the second against a clearly frustrated Djokovic.
Djokovic regrouped in the third — finally finding the break he needed in the final game.
“I knew coming into the match that if he serves well and if he picks his spot in the box it’s going to be tough to break him,” Djokovic said.
“I wasn’t maybe feeling my rhythm on that return very well today, but he was just making my life very difficult, returning the serve.
“He was just acing me all over, getting a lot of free points.
“Today was really anybody’s game until the last couple of points. That last game in the third where he missed some first serves, gave me looks on the second and I used it. That’s pretty much it.”
With five Indian Wells titles Djokovic is tied for the record with Swiss great Roger Federer.
But the Serbian superstar hasn’t made it to the quarter-finals in the California desert since his last title run in 2016 and now he’s had to come through a pair of three-setters to return to the last 16.
He’ll face defending champion Jack Draper for a place in the quarter-finals after the Briton beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo 6-1, 7-5.
Draper’s victory here last year — featuring a semifinal win over Carlos Alcaraz — launched his rise to fourth in the world.
But he then missed the better part of six months with an arm injury and arrived in California ranked 14th, his win over Cerundolo marking the first time since June that he’s posted back-to-back ATP victories.
Cerundolo served for the second set at 5-4, but a few mistakes gave Draper an opening and the Briton broke back, saving a pair of break points in the next game before finishing it off on Cerundolo’s serve.
A pair of top-10 seeds were sent packing as Britain’s Cameron Norrie ousted eighth-ranked Australian Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4 and Aussie qualifier Rinki Hijikata 10th-ranked Alexander Bublik 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Hijikata, ranked 117th in the world, claimed his first win over a top-10 player to advance to a meeting with Norrie.
Alcaraz, riding a 13-0 match winning streak as he chases a third Indian Wells title, headlined the night session, taking on France’s Arthur Rinderknech.
The 22-year-old Spaniard’s Australian Open triumph made him the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam, and he followed up with a title in Doha in February.
Now Alcaraz is aiming to return to the winner’s circle in Indian Wells, where his bid for a third straight title last year was derailed by Draper in the semifinals.
