UEFA Champions League Semi-Finalist 2020

Lore & Background

The 2020 UEFA Champions League final was originally scheduled for 30 May 2020 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 17 June 2020, the UEFA Executive Committee relocated the final to Lisbon as part of a 'final-eight tournament' of single-match knockout ties. The match was the first European premier tournament final played on a Sunday and the first since 2009 not played on a Saturday. It was also the first final played after June. Bayern Munich won 1–0, securing their sixth European Cup title and second continental treble, becoming the second European men's football team to win the continental treble twice.

In Their Own Story

The rain slicked the pitch at Anfield as the clock ticked into stoppage time in the second leg. The roar of the traveling Parisian support was deafening, drowning out the Merseyside crowd for moments at a time. As the final whistle blew, confirming the 2-2 draw and the aggregate defeat, the players stood frozen on the grass. It wasn't a moment of despair, but of realization; they had reached heights previously unimagined in Parisian football, standing just one step away from the ultimate prize.

Reader's Guide

Paris Saint-Germain reached the final by winning all four prior knockout ties against German opposition in European competition, including earlier in the season against Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 and RB Leipzig in the semi-finals. The semi-final was a single-match tie in Lisbon, not a two-legged affair. PSG won Ligue 1 in 2019–20, which was awarded based on PPG ratio as the season ended prematurely due to COVID-19. The club also won the Coupe de France, the Coupe de la Ligue, and the Trophée des Champions, winning all four domestic titles. Edinson Cavani left PSG in June 2020 and did not play in the 2019–20 UCL semi-final.

Did You Know?

• PSG reached their first European Cup/Champions League final in 2020, having played 110 prior matches in the competition—the most for a final debutant.
• The 2020 final was the first European premier tournament final played on a Sunday and the first since 2009 not played on a Saturday.
• Bayern Munich became the second European men's football team to win the continental treble twice, after securing their second treble in 2019–20.
• Kingsley Coman, who scored the winning goal for Bayern, was a former Paris Saint-Germain player.