IFFHS STATISTICS AND NEWS OF THE WEEK 25
Picture : Liverpool FC
IFFHS Statistics and News of the Week 25
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE NEWS
The UEFA Executive Committee met yesterday and took several decisions regarding the regulations, format, calendar and venues for a variety of UEFA club and national team competitions. All decisions taken today by the UEFA Executive Committee concerning the Champions League 2019/20 are listed below:
UEFA Champions League 2019/20
Liverpool FC, winner 2018/19
Quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will be played as a final eight straight knock-out tournament at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica and the Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon between 12 and 23 August 2020. The remaining Round of 16 second-leg matches will be played on the 7/8 August, pending a decision on whether they will take place at the home team’s stadiums or in Portugal. The Estádio do Dragão in Porto and the Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques in Guimarães will be added to Lisbon venues for the Round of 16, if necessary.
Quarter-finals will take place on 12/13/14/15 August, semi-finals on 18/19 August and the final at the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on 23 August. All remaining matches of the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League will kick-off at 21:00CET. The draws for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on 10 July 2020 at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon and the exact match schedule will be communicated following such draw. All quarter-final and semi-final matches will go to extra-time and penalty kicks in case of a draw at the end of the regular playing time. The same regulatory change will likewise apply to matches in the other competitions for which the same decision has been taken.
Istanbul, which was originally appointed to stage the 2020 final will now host the 2021 UEFA Champions League Final, whereas the venues for subsequent finals have all agreed to host these a year later than originally planned, with St-Petersburg in 2022, Munich in 2023 and London (Wembley) in 2024.
UEFA Europa League 2019/20
Chelsea FC, Winner 2018/19
Quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final will be played as a final eight straight knock-out tournament in Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen between 10 and 21 August. The Round of 16 matches will be played on 05/06 August with kick-off times of 18.55CET and 21.00CET. A decision will be made in due course on whether the Round of 16 matches for which the first leg has already been played will be staged at the home team’s venue or in Germany. The matches FC Internazionale Milano v Getafe CF and Sevilla FC v AS Roma, whose first leg was also postponed, will be played as a single leg at a venue to be confirmed.
All subsequent matches in the competition will be played as a final eight tournament, with quarter-finals on 10/11 August, semi-finals on 16/17 August and the final in Cologne on 21 August, all kicking-off at 21:00CET. The draws for the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on 10 July 2020 at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon and the exact match schedule will be communicated following such draw.
Gdańsk, which was originally appointed to stage the 2020 final will now host the 2021 UEFA Europa League Final, whereas the venues for subsequent finals have all agreed to host these a year later than originally planned, with Sevilla in 2022 and Budapest in 2023.
UEFA Women’s Champions League 2019/20
Olympique Lyonnais Winner 2018/19, 4 times consecutive
All remaining matches in the competition will be played as a final eight straight knock-out tournament at the San Mamés Stadium in Bilbao and the Anoeta Stadium in San Sebastián, with quarter-finals on 21 (18:00CET) and 22 August (20.00CET), semi-finals on 25/26 August at 20.00CET and the final taking place in San Sebastián on 30 August at 20.00CET. A draw will also take place at UEFA in Nyon on 26 June to determine the order of matches and the final match schedule will be communicated following such draw.
The UEFA Women’s Champions League finals of the coming years will take place in Gothenburg (2021), Turin (2022) and Eindhoven (2023) as originally planned.
WOMEN BUNDESLIGA CHAMPION : VFL WOLFSBURG
The woman team of VFL Wolfsburg (Picture) has beaten yesterday SC Freiburg to win their fourth straight Woman Bundesliga title ! The victory put unbeaten Wolfsburg on 58 points after 20 games, eight points ahead of second-placed Bayern Munich with two games left to play.
Wolfsburg's dominance has been built on a miserly defence that has let in just eight goals so far and a powerful frontline led by Danish striker Harder, whose 26 goals are part of a huge total of 88 scored in the league campaign this season.
MEN BUNDESLIGA CHAMPION : FC BAYERN
For the eighth time in a row, Bayern Munich are Bundesliga champions. For the seventh time in nine years, they are in the DFB-Pokal final. And yet, as it has been for the best part of a decade, their season will mostly be defined by how well they do in the Champions League. Bayern's Bundesliga triumphs often feel like processions, but 2019-20 has been a real fight. They suffered five defeats in the first half of the season, two of which came after a 5-1 November thrashing by Eintracht Frankfurt that cost head coach Niko Kovac his job. They have been winter champions seven times since 2009 but were four points behind leaders RB Leipzig at the turn of the year.
They turned to Hansi Flick (picture) ,handing the former assistant a temporary deal to steady the ship while high-profile names were courted, but his record in 2020 would be the envy of every coach in the world and proves why his new full-time contract was wholly deserved. Since December 14, Bayern have won 17 of 18 Bundesliga matches, the sole blot coming in a goalless home draw with Leipzig in February. They have scored at least twice in all but three games. They have scored five goals in a game three times and twice hit six, keeping 10 clean sheets in the process. Even the two-month coronavirus lay-off has done nothing to shake them from their stride. A 1-0 win at Dortmund on May 26 gave them a seven-point cushion at the top, and that, realistically, was that.
In all competitions, Flick won 24 of his first 27 games in charge, beating Pep Guardiola's mark of 22. Bayern became the first team to score 90 Bundesliga goals in the first 30 rounds and have hit 132 in all matches this term, a record for a German team.
Flick has found the touch with his players, both the rising stars and the established elite. He has turned 19-year-old Alphonso Davies into a devastating attacking full-back and helped Leon Goretzka find his feet in midfield. Manuel Neuer and Jerome Boateng look full of renewed vigour, having had their Bayern futures questioned last year. In attack, Thomas Muller has equalled Kevin De Bruyne's record of 20 assists for a season - a spectacular tally for a number 10 who does not take set-pieces. Robert Lewandowski is on 31 league goals for the season and 46 in all competitions, a personal record. Kingsley Coman and Serge Gnabry are a menace, particularly with Joshua Kimmich pulling the midfield strings, his old right-back role firmly in Benjamin Pavard's hands. Thiago's latest muscle injury has been offset by Goretzka's rise to prominence. With Lucas Hernandez and Ivan Perisic fit again and Philippe Coutinho to come back, there is a depth to Bayern that is hard to beat.
It all means Bayern will be the best-prepared team once the Champions League returns, most likely in August. Bayern's last European triumph came when they won the treble under Jupp Heynckes in 2012-13. If the Champions League really does define their season, there is every chance 2019-20 will be one to remember.