Not long until the quarter-finals start on Friday: Quarter-finals Friday 21 August Glasgow City vs Wolfsburg (18:00 CET: Anoeta Stadium, San Sebastián) Atlético Madrid vs Barcelona (18:00 CET: San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao) Saturday 22 August Arsenal vs Paris Saint-Germain (20:00 CET: Anoeta Stadium, San Sebastián) Lyon vs Bayern München (20:00 CET: San Mamés Stadium, Bilbao) Host venue: Real Sociedad's Estadio de Anoeta (img: Валерий Дед, cc-by) It's nice that Uefa held some men's CL games as a curtain-raiser. The "toughest" competition in football history Barça Men 2 - 8 Bayern Men
Also, it's quite interesting that men's Olympique Lyonnais have now a shot at winning the Champions' League. Their women's counterparts are probably like: "Mmm, yeah, been there, done that!".
Four clubs have still the chance to become the first club that wins men`s and women`s Champions League: Barcelona, Bayern, PSG and OL. Bayern, PSG and OL can even win it in the same year.
My predictions for the quarter-finals: Glasgow-Wolfsburg 0:4 Atletico-Barcelona 1:2 Arsenal-PSG 1:1 PSG wins on penalties Lyon-Bayern 2:1
Well, yeah, but it's...uh... 'Le' Lyon. Lyon's recent form was a little inconsistent, wasn't it? Free-scoring and prolific against teams from many nations, except France youtube.com/watch?v=aFlkpJU5FFI Atlético are back in training after the bad news in Madrid last week, the coronavirus positive tests for 5 members of first-team staff. If the unnamed members are players, presumably those five have no chance of participating. The club's putting a brave face on it, but it's sad that it's come to this.
Barcelona are the favorite in Spanish derby and not only because of late Covid-19 situation in Atletico. Blaugranes are systematically building toward the best club in Europe and their current league season is a good indicator of that (19W 0L 2D goals 86:6). Atletico may still upset but rather in terms of a draw and then penalties than an outright win. My prediction Atletico 0-2 Barcelona On paper Lyon are the favorite, but... I can't really recall the match which they won on merit of open play goals. I mean they score them all right but usually as 3rd or 4th in the match and against less strong opponents. If Bayern will be able to nullify Lyon's threat from set pieces then all bets are off. My prediction: Lyon 1-1 Bayern I guess Wolfsburg will be playing against Glasgow with tournament schedule in mind - get the job done but don't overdue it cuz the finish line is in 3rd match in Final. Glasgow doesn't have the luxury of deep bench so 4-5-1 will probably be the order of the day - if they are able to survive first 20min without conceding a goal then they will start building on that. My prediction: Glasgow 0-2 Wolfsburg Arsenal v PSG is hardest one to call. During last matches PSG has shown some glimpses of really good play but consitency (and finishing) is the key, especially when at odds. On paper Arsenal has everything needed to succeed in this match but it's a long road from a draw board strategy to on plan execution in pitch conditions. My prediction: Arsenal 1-0 PSG
Barca will have arguably have the two best wingers in the world coming down on both sides. It’s turned their strikers into potent scoring machines. I think they’ll it all the way to the finals. there’s really no hope for Glasgow; they barely started training, lost t their one friendly to Man U, 0-4. Wolfsburg actually had a stronger recruiting season as compared who they lost & just noticed; picked up your fav Polish Gk! Lyon had an excellent pre season, played maybe 6 games in all? They’ve settled on their lineup & with their array of superstars, would like to know when’s the last time they’ve lost an PK shootout?(could be decades, lol). Meantime BM plays a very underwhelming offense that will only occasionally blurt out a surprise long ball plus let their top teen sensation, Klara Buhl, off for surgery(that could of waited) without her they did worse in their recruiting as they lost both Hendrich & Leupolz in the trade offs. I see Lyon winning this one. On paper, Arsenal should be the way stronger team, along with the two acquired Aussies, Cately & Foord, Little & Mead should be recovered 100%. All this should make Miedema once again an monster scorer. PSG has had way better preparation, including those two competitive games in the French Cup, but their offense didn’t impress me, instead of trying to get it to Diani or Katoto, they kept passing it to the incompetent Huitema. She might be the weakest starting striker in the whole tournament! Guess we’re finally going to have that age old question answered; can an way better prepared them beat a way stronger one?
My predictions Glasgow 0 Wolfsburg 5 Glasgow getting beat easily by WSL clubs in pre-season says it all. Athletico 0 Barca 3 Easy win for Barca Arsenal 4 PSG 3 Should be a lot of goals. PSG football quality is not great at times. Arsenal's friendly campaign went well. Lyon 2 Bayern 1 Lyon not impressive in pre season. But they should raise their level for WCL football.
The Guardian is profiling the final 8: Arsenal Madrid Barcelona Odd someone went to the trouble to do a 1000+ word profile on a team and missed Lieke Martens, Caroline Graham Hansen and Asisat Oshoala.
Yea: I don't think the writer mentioned /any/ of Barcelona's international players--only Spaniards. Speaking of which, one of the dumbest things I've seen a coach do--or not do--was Barcelona's coach last year not playing Oshoala much. I believe she was mostly a late-game sub while Toni Duggan got most of the starts at forward. Dumb. Duggan is a good player, to be sure--but Oshoala is simply an amazing athlete and scoring threat--and her starting this year along with the arrival of Hansen helped to turn Barcelona into a dominant team in the Spanish league--considerably better than they were the previous two/three years. I think they've only failed to win 2 games in their last 24 or so. Oshoala is not a player who should be sitting on the bench, and I can only think there was some racial bias involved prior to this year. They are going to be formidable in this abbreviated CL competition, IMO.
Barca and Wolfsburg will show the games on their tv. BT Sport has all the games in UK except Glasgow Wolfsburg, so streams will be available. UEFA should publish the updated squad lists tomorrow.
I pretty much got to wait till game time to find a stream. You would have to watch one on replay since both games on each day are unbelievably played at the same time. Here's a youtuber that's been posting French games later(so keep on double checking) Alexander Kachusov - YouTube Possibly both BM & Wolfsburg might show their games live & then on replay on their youtube chanels VfL Wolfsburg - YouTube FC Bayern Munich - YouTube
Hegerberg is back into Lyon squad for Final Eight tourney #UWCLLa liste des Lyonnaises pour @UWCL pic.twitter.com/j1G6IE83ee— footofeminin (@footofeminin) August 19, 2020
Well, the arrival of Hermoso was huge as well. Not only because you brought back a very gifted player but also because you simultaneously deprived your only rival of their top goal scorer.
Their streaming site is https://www.uefa.tv/ (signin required) - last year, the Youtube stream had a geoblock but several countries could see the final on Uefa's channel. I guess this'll show up if uefa.tv can stream it in your 'territory'
probably Lyon looking a little weaker in that usual starting CB MBock just suffered an serious injury in her last game, but at least they got the capable Buchanan to cover her spot/Le Sommer got married a little over a week ago, so not sure if the coach thinks she’s still on her honeymoon, but she hasn’t been starting as of late/Lyon’s don’t know who to start at left back; they’ve been playing Karchoui over the more heralded Greenwood & teen sensation Bacha(could come back to haunt them) but still favor them over BM who idiotically gave up their two best defenders in Leupolz & Hendrich and apparently aren’t going to use their two pickup forwards, Buhl(off for surgery) & Schuller(who’s been sitting on the bench in most recent BM warmup games) ————-———— read that CBS All-access will cover women’s CL, just how my seen it yet listed on their schedule
Interestingly, checking the homepage for different countries, Uefa's schedule has the 4 quarter-finals available for many countries, in most of Europe, and currently Japan, U.S., Canada – fewer games are listed in the UK, France, Germany: 2 matches, and Spain: 3 matches – only the games with two foreign clubs (so, Spain has Barça-Atlético on TV instead). It looks as if Uefa did deals for some games to give non-exclusive rights, which is quite smart, as it lets them promote their own site's coverage while a game might also be televised. In 2021/22 it'll be different, and they plan to sell TV rights for the whole tournament, not single games. (Viktor Ugrin, cc-by-sa)
These are a little dated but based on the elo ratings from July 1st but... Wolfsburg (2119) vs. Glasgow (1107) - 99.7% win percentage for Wolfsburg Barcelona (1766) vs. Atletico Madrid (1568) - 75.8% PSG (1857) vs Arsenal (1769) - 62.4% Lyon (2215) vs Bayern Munich (1977) - 79.4% Should also note that Bayern Munich was rated third in all of Europe : /