Home games being moved thousands of miles and former champions finding form as others enter a crisis.

The Champions League knockout stages have become an absolute must-watch in recent years - and it is time for the pinnacle of club football to get under way this week.

How much of a difference could Covid make and how will the English teams fare? Can anyone stop Bayern Munich?


All three English teams have been handed a boost - from a sporting point of view at least - after their away legs were moved to neutral venues.

RB Leipzig v Liverpool and Borussia Monchengladbach v Manchester City will take place in Budapest, Hungary. That is a 1,000- and 1,500-mile round journey respectively for the German clubs' 'home' games.

Atletico Madrid's game with Chelsea next week will now be in Bucharest. The Romanian capital is actually closer to London (1,500 miles) than Madrid (2,100 miles).

Those changes are all because of international travel being restricted between the UK and other countries because of the Kent variant of coronavirus.

As things stand all the second legs are in England but that could yet change.

Home advantage may seem less important with the lack of fans - but there were the exact same amount of home wins in the group stage as there were last season pre-Covid (40 out of 96).

The win ratio was worse in the 28 games this season with a crowd - with only seven wins - although some of the weaker teams were those allowed to have fans.

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