UEFA

In a strictly sporting sense, the worst part of the pandemic was definitely the postponement of Euro 2020. On the one hand it deprived us of a month-long carnival of joy (the expanded 2016 tourney was thrilling with Wales and Iceland getting out of pocket and Portugal claiming top prize despite winning only one match in regular time), and on the other it reminded us of how dumb it is to host a major international tournament in 12 different countries (Did you ask for this? I didn’t ask for this).

But the countdown is once again on with Euro 2020 Part Deux just 283 days away!

Lyon won its fifth straight Women’s Champions League title (seventh overall) on Sunday. How on earth do you break OL’s hegemony when they’ve so thoroughly dominated Europe? 

Buy all the other best players in the world not on Lyon. At least, that appears to be Chelsea’s plan.

BERN — Europe's national teams will emerge from a 10-month hiatus as the second edition of the UEFA Nations League kicks off this week, still under the shadow the COVID-19 pandemic which brought football to a standstill earlier this year.

There has been no international action in the region since last November and the matches which were played then, such as Italy's 9-1 demolition of Armenia and Germany's 6-1 win over Northern Ireland, now seem to belong to a different era.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin says the single-game knockout format, used in the Champions League this year from the quarterfinal onwards, has produced more exciting football than the usual two-legged games and could be revisited in the future.

The format was changed in order to allow the competition to be completed in a shorter time-span after the COVID-19 pandemic halted play for several months across Europe in March.

Eight clubs headed to Lisbon and the final will be contested later on Sunday, pitting Bayern Munich against Paris St Germain.

The 2019-20 UEFA Women’s Champions League continued on Friday with the quarterfinals following a suspension of play that had put the competition on hold since Halloween. Like the men’s side, the tournament was changed to a single-leg format with all the matches being played behind closed doors in Bilbao and San Sebastián, Spain.

Kosovan soccer club FC Prishtina have taken the unprecedented step of signing players on loan from rival teams for one match in order to contest a Europa League qualifier, the club and the national federation have confirmed.

Barcelona's teenage forward Ansu Fati and new Manchester City signing Ferran Torres were among six debutants in the Spain squad coach Luis Enrique unveiled on Thursday for next month's UEFA Nations League matches against Germany and Ukraine.

Fati, 17, who is Barça's youngest league goalscorer as well as the youngest player to ever to score in the Champions League, makes the leap into the senior team from the under-21 side after an outstanding breakthrough season with the Catalans.

On Friday, Aug. 21, the UEFA Women’s Champions League returns with the quarterfinals of the competition following a layoff that hasn’t seen a match played since last Halloween. 

However, the tournament now returns in grand style with a knockout-style format in the Basque Country of northern Spain. Athletic Bilbao’s San Mamés and Real Sociedad’s Anoeta host the remainder of the competition, and Friday’s match in San Sebastián sees Wolfsburg — two-time winner of the competition — take on the only remaining part-time team left, Scotland’s Glasgow City.