Next season, the women's Champions League will launch a format: there will be 50 participants, group stage, 20% more matches … This is how UEFA remembered it during the draw for the quarterfinals of this season, which is leaving the occasional eccentricity for the newspaper archive that in its male version it would be unthinkable.
Already in the round of 16 the Danish Brondby and Norwegian Valeranga they played their place in the second round in a single match, in the territory of the first, after roundtrip crashes were postponed and then suspended. The decision, agreed between the two teams and UEFA, was due to the quarantine restrictions imposed by the Norwegian authorities,
This was one of the first rarities of this campaign in a women's Champions League that has not been able to escape the consequences of the pandemic. In addition, on the field of play, the differences in level that exist between the teams of some countries or others have continued to be reflected. Overall 17-0, like Rosengard to Lanchkhuti, or 8-0 from Chelsea to Benfica do doubt the competitiveness, even in the final rounds, of a tournament that brings together the best on the continent and that next season will have even more participants.
Different schedules
The round of 16 of the competition were not saved from eccentricities either. A good example of this is the party that the Bayern played against Kazygurt at 7:00 am last Thursday, March 4 (12:00 Kazakh time on a business day).
And it is that, unlike what happens in its masculine namesake, in the feminine Champions the schedules are totally different and without any common criteria, not even to take into account the audiovisual criteria. In the second round, matches were played in a wide range, from seven in the morning, to eight in the afternoon, passing through 13:30 hours of the match that Atlético played at home in Monza.
As the last rarity of these round of 16 stands out the dispute of the tie between PSG and Sparta Prague, with both games postponed due to coronavirus and the shadow of the definitive suspension of the return planning …