BERLIN: The final stages of this season’s interrupted Champions League will be played in Lisbon, with the final on August 22 or 23, German newspaper Bild reported on Friday.

The assertion by Bild follows reports by several other European media in recent days. An official announcement is expected when UEFA’s Executive Committee meets by videoconference next Wednesday, June 17.

Bild also reported that the closing stages of the Europa League are set to be moved to Germany, with matches being played in the region around Cologne, in the west of the country.

This season’s Champions League final was scheduled to take place in Istanbul at the end of May before the competition was suspended in mid-March in the last-16 stage because of the coronavirus pandemic which has ravaged Europe.

The Turkish sports minister said on Thursday that Turkey is “confident” the Champions League final will still be held in Istanbul.

“I have no doubt it will take place in the best way in Turkey. We’re confident that we will receive good news on June 17,” said Turkish Sports Minister Mehmet Kasapoglu.

“We are following this closely, it’s a very important matter,” he insisted during an interview with TRT Sport channel.

The Europa League final was scheduled for the Polish city of Gdansk.

In both competitions, all ties would be played as one-off matches from the quarter-finals onwards. Usually the quarter-finals and semi-finals are staged over two legs.

Four second-leg matches in the Champions League round of 16 are still to be played, with Juventus still due to host Lyon, Manchester City scheduled to play Real Madrid, Bayern Munich defending a 3-0 lead against Chelsea and Barcelona’s tie with Napoli poised at 1-1 from the first leg in Italy.

According to Bild, those matches could be played on the weekend of August 8 and 9 before the quarter-finalists move to the Portuguese capital.

Atletico Madrid, Paris St Germain, RB Leipzig and Atalanta had all qualified just before the competition was suspended.

The Europa League faces a greater backlog, with only six of the last 16, first legs having been played, and none of the second legs.

Portugal’s credentials to host a Champions League mini-tournament are boosted by the fact that it has not been as badly hit by the pandemic as other western European countries, while it has no clubs left in the competition.

The Portuguese top flight resumed at the start of this month, with matches being played behind closed doors.

Lisbon has several stadiums, including Benfica’s 65,000-capacity Estadio da Luz, which hosted the final of Euro 2004 and the Champions League in 2014, and the nearby 50,000-seater Estadio Jose Alvalade — home of Sporting — which was also used at Euro 2004 and for the UEFA Cup final in 2005.

The postponed European Championship playoffs and final tournament are also at the top of the executive committee agenda, published by UEFA on Thursday.

Euro 2020 was scheduled to open on Friday in Rome and be played in 12 different countries. It was postponed by one year.

At the meeting, UEFA wants to confirm all 12 cities will still host at least four games each. The congested calendar will also affect national teams. Sixteen teams are still involved in playoffs to decide the last four places at Euro 2020. Those playoffs, originally scheduled to be held in March, could begin in October.

All 55 national teams were scheduled to start Nations League groups in September and World Cup qualifying groups in March. The 10 World Cup qualifying groups are due to be drawn in late-November.

World Cup qualifying could run into 2022, with playoffs scheduled that March potentially delayed to June five months before the final tournament in Qatar.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2020