UCL: Do English clubs have an edge following COVID travel restrictions?

Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City could inadvertently have an edge in the Champions League thanks to a series of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Three English clubs — Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City — will play the away legs of their UEFA Champions League round of 16 games at neutral sites this month due to strict COVID-19 travel restrictions placed on the United Kingdom.

RB Leipzig’s first-leg home game against Liverpool on Feb. 16 will be played in Hungary’s capitol Budapest, while Atletico Madrid will travel to Romania to take on Chelsea on Feb. 23 for their first-leg game in Bucharest. Manchester City’s trip to Borussia Monchengladbach for their first-leg encounter, also to be held in the Hungarian capitol, on Feb. 24.

The move, after a contagious variant of the virus was recently detected in the U.K., sets up an unusual scenario by which Leipzig, Atleti and ‘Gladbach will all be forced to travel instead of hosting games following restrictions placed on them by their national governments. Despite no or limited fans in the stands, traveling to host a home game isn’t helping these clubs.

The three English clubs, for now, will be allowed to host the second-leg matches at home next month. If the schedule stands as it is, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea will have an enormous edge. If anything, they still have to travel for their road games, but get the chance to host the return legs knowing what they need to do to advance.

https://twitter.com/ChampionsLeague/status/1358395047646027776

Will COVID restrictions give English clubs an advantage in UCL?

RB Leipzig, Borussia Monchengladbach and Atletico Madrid all have to fly across the continent — twice it turns out — and don’t have the chance to take advantage of the friendly confines of their home stadiums, even with no fans.

Liverpool have fallen on tough times lately after the club fell to fourth place following three defeats from their last five games. Reports out of England, meanwhile, suggest the team’s return contest at Anfield Road could also be moved to a neutral site in order to lessen the risk of having Leipzig have to quarantine for two weeks once they return home. That could potentially erase any edge Liverpool, or the other English clubs, have in the round of 16.

Manchester City are currently in first place in the Premier League (five points ahead of rivals Manchester United), while Chelsea are in fifth.

In a statement Thursday, UEFA said it “is in touch with the respective clubs, the English Football Association and the German Football Association,” although they did not elaborate further.

It’s not a given that the three English clubs will advance, although they had a strong chance at it before UEFA tinkered with the schedule.

UEFA has had to make some tough decisions over the past year because of the pandemic. Earlier this month, the governing body put forth a series of health and safety protocols so that clubs can avoid an automatic defeat. Last season’s tournament was put on pause in March, only to return in August with a single-elimination knockout stage, played entirely in Portugal, to determine a champion.