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Sharing the spotlight
Marawan Elshafei Published in Ahram Online on 04 - 08 - 2020

The Egyptian Premier League will restart today, Thursday, after a five-month suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak. But despite the long break, it might not get the attention it deserves because the world's most prestigious football club championship will return just a day later.
The UEFA Champions League makes a triumphant return to action this week after the last ball was kicked on 11 March because of the pandemic.
The second leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 resumes on 7 August, Friday night, with Manchester City taking on Real Madrid while Juventus play host to Lyon.
Madrid will travel to Manchester for their tie which hangs in the balance after a thrilling reverse fixture at Santiago Bernabeu. Zinedine Zidane's men took the lead through Isco, only for late Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne goals to give City a famous 2-1 victory in the Spanish capital.
In Italy, Juventus must overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit against Olympique Lyonnais.
The new formats for the Champions League and Europa League sees UEFA wanting to get them all wrapped up and ready for the new tournaments in the not-too-distant future.
Champions League last-16 (Cairo local time):
Friday 7 August, 8pm
Juventus vs Lyon (agg 0-1)
Manchester City vs Real Madrid (agg 2-1)
Saturday 8 August, 8pm
Barcelona vs Napoli (agg 1-1)
Bayern Munich vs Chelsea (agg 3-0)
Four teams have already booked their place in the last eight: PSG, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid and RB Leipzig.
The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the Champions League will be played in Lisbon, Portugal.
They will all be single, knockout matches.
The Champions League quarter-finals:
Wednesday 12 August: Atalanta vs Paris St-Germain
Thursday 13 August: RB Leipzig vs Atletico Madrid
Friday 14 August: Napoli or Barcelona vs Chelsea or Bayern Munich
Saturday 15 August: Real Madrid or Manchester City vs Lyon or Juventus
Meanwhile, the Europa League will have its last-16 second legs completed on 5 and 6 August, with any ties yet to play their first leg completing the tie in one, single, knockout game.
Europa League last-16:
Wednesday 5 August:
Copenhagen vs Istanbul Basaksehir (agg 0-1)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs Wolfsburg (agg 2-1)
Inter Milan vs Getafe – one-legged tie (Schalke, Germany)
Man Utd vs LASK (agg 5-0)
Thursday 6 August
Bayer Leverkusen vs Rangers (agg 3-1)
Sevilla vs Roma – one-legged tie (Duisburg, Germany)
Basel vs Eintracht Frankfurt (agg 3-0)
Wolves vs Olympiakos (agg 1-1)
The vast majority of football fans, analysts and journalists believe that a new club will be crowned European champions this year.
As for Egyptians, although they are well known to be die-hard fans of Real Madrid and/or Barcelona, many support Juventus and Manchester City because they admire their players and managers.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 6 August, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

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