We now know who is part of the final four of the UEFA Champions League. In the semifinals, Bayern Munich will play Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain will play RB Leipzig. In each contest we will see a team from the Bundesliga in Germany versus a team from Ligue 1 in France.
However the soccer world is buzzing at the moment from Bayern Munich’s dominant performance over FC Barcelona on Friday. Bayern literally clobbered the Spanish powerhouse by a score of 8-2. Barca looked completely disinterested and were extremely sloppy defensively. Thomas Muller and Philippe Coutinho each scored twice for Bayern, but the most phenomenal play in the entire game was a highlight reel pass by Canadian phenom Alphonso Davies to Joshua Kimmich which put Bayern up 5-2.
The other quarterfinal contests saw Lyon beat Manchester City 3-1, RB Leipzig beat Atletico Madrid 2-1 and Paris Saint-Germain over Atalanta 2-1. The semifinals will take place in Lisbon, Portugal on August 18 and 19. The UEFA Champions League Final will also be at Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal on August 23.
By having two teams in the semifinals is extremely significant for French soccer. The top five soccer leagues in Europe are the Bundesliga in Germany, the English Premier League, Serie A in Italy, La Liga in Spain and Ligue 1 in France. However, Ligue 1 many times is the fifth-wheel among the five. Despite being the reigning World Cup champions, France is only awarded three guaranteed spots in the Champions League, while Germany, Italy, England and Spain are allotted four.
Thumbs down to the North American major television networks for not bringing the UEFA Champions League Final on August 23. In the United States the game will only be seen on the CBS Sports Network, and in Canada, it will only be seen on the online service DAZN. It is nothing against DAZN or the CBS Sports Network, but many people are missing out. The games were once shown on the mainstream FOX Network in the United States and TSN in Canada. With CBS being awarded the rights, the championship game should be on the main network. However due to a scheduling conflict, CBS has unfortunately decided to show the final round of golf’s Northern Trust from Massachusetts instead.
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