Atletico Madrid’s ‘home’ leg with Chelsea in the Champions League moved to Romania

Published 10/02/2021 at 11:53 GMT

The switch to Bucharest is because of Covid-19 travel restrictions Spain has put in place on arrivals from the UK, due to concerns about new variants of the disease. The last-16 match, which will now be played at the Arena Nationala, will still take place on Tuesday 23 February at 8pm GMT.

Atletico Madrid's home leg with Chelsea has been moved

Image credit: Getty Images

Atletico Madrid’s home leg with Chelsea in the Champions League last-16 has been moved to Romania due to coronavirus restrictions.

The Spanish government has put a ban on arrivals from the United Kingdom without quarantine, due to concerns about new variants of Covid-19.

For the match to go ahead, a neutral venue needed to be found, with Bucharest’s Arena Nationala stepping up to host it at the same time of 8pm GMT on Tuesday 23 February.

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The second leg will still take place at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday 17 March.

It’s the latest switch of venue involving English teams playing in Europe. Liverpool and Manchester City will play their away Champions League ties with Leipzig and Borussia Monchengladbach respectively in Budapest, because of similar restrictions placed on the UK by Germany.

Manchester United’s Europa League last-32 first leg with Real Sociedad has been shifted from Spain to Italian side Juventus’ Allianz Stadium in Turin, while the UK’s inclusion of Portugal on its travel ‘red list’ means Arsenal’s ‘away’ leg with Benfica will be played in Rome, Italy, with the ‘home’ return match staged in Athens, Greece.

Despite all this, the away goals rule will still be in play.