The draw for the remainder of this season’s Champions League was held Friday in Nyon, Switzerland, and offered up potentially tantalizing encounters between some of Europe’s biggest sides.
Due to the pandemic-induced work stoppage, the competition will be completed in Lisbon using a single-game elimination format starting from the quarterfinal stage, as opposed to the usual two-legged affairs that typically lead up to the final.
The matchups, which will be played behind closed doors from Aug. 12-16, are as follows:
Real Madrid or Manchester City vs. Juventus or Lyon
RB Leipzig vs. Atletico Madrid
Napoli or Barcelona vs. Chelsea or Bayern Munich
Atalanta vs. Paris Saint-Germain
There are four round of 16 matchups that were halted halfway through and need to be concluded. The home teams (listed first below) will host those fixtures at their respective stadiums on Aug. 7-8. Complete with scores from the first legs, here’s how those matchups shape up:
Bayern Munich (3) vs. Chelsea (0)
Barcelona (1) vs. Napoli (1)
Manchester City (2) vs. Real Madrid (1)
Juventus (0) vs. Lyon (1)
UEFA also finalized the path to the tournament final by drawing up the semifinal bracket. Those games, which are scheduled for Aug. 18-19, will feature the following clashes:
Real Madrid/Manchester City or Lyon/Juventus vs. Napoli/Barcelona or Chelsea/Bayern Munich
RB Leipzig or Atletico Madrid vs. Atalanta or Paris Saint-Germain
On paper, the potential for a Manchester City-Bayern Munich semifinal encounter catches the eye; the sides are widely viewed as two of the best on the continent, with Bayern’s dominant form after the Bundesliga restart instantly making them one of the tournament favorites.
There’s also the potential for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to meet in the semis should Barcelona and Juventus advance, respectively.
Meanwhile, PSG will fancy their chances of emerging from the other side of the bracket, though red-hot Atalanta – the darlings of the sport at the moment – will have the backing of neutrals everywhere hoping for a big upset.
Perhaps mercifully, a determination on Dak Prescott’s contractual fate with the Dallas Cowboys will be known in a week.
Talks between the Cowboys and Prescott’s agent, Todd France, began in the spring of 2019. The club initially hoped a deal could be consummated before training camp, then during training camp, then at the start of the season, but it never happened.
Unable to get a contract worked out before free agency, the Cowboys put the exclusive franchise tag on Prescott, knowing that July 15 is the deadline to sign him to a long-term deal.
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The negotiations have generated a lot of public debate. Do the Cowboys really believe Prescott is their guy? Why won’t owner and GM Jerry Jones just pay the man? Does Prescott really think he should be the NFL’s highest-paid quarterback, even after the play
Truthfully, it probably doesn’t all that much. The Cowboys likely would do a 10-year deal with Prescott, but if he won’t do a five-year deal, why would he do a longer deal if the guaranteed money does not go up appreciably?
Quarterbacks are judged on wins and stats. Mahomes has both. His first two years as Kansas City’s starter are off the charts. He has taken the Chiefs to an AFC Championship Game and a Super Bowl win in his first two seasons. Prescott has one playoff win and has missed the postseason twice in his first four seasons.
Depending on how you want to read the Mahomes deal, it’s a max of $50.3 million per season, $45 million per season based on new money or $39.75 million when looking at it as a 12-year deal. You know which way France will view it and which way the Cowboys will view it.
What happens if the sides do not reach an agreement?
Prescott has to play the season on the $31.4 million tag and the sides cannot discuss a long-term deal until 2021. Essentially, this might kick the can down the road for a year before the sides get into the same prolonged dance again. The only good news is we wouldn’t have to hear and read incessant reports about negotiations until next offseason.
UEFA announced Thursday details for the four remaining fixtures of the Champions League last-16 stage that were postponed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The European football governing body confirmed that the four second-leg tilts will be hosted at the respective club’s home venue on Aug. 7 and 8 “where travelling is possible without restrictions for the visiting clubs.”
The remaining four last-16 fixtures and aggregate scores are as follows (home team for second leg listed first):
Juventus vs Lyon (0-1)
Manchester City vs Real Madrid (2-1)
Bayern vs Chelsea (3-0)
Barcelona vs Napoli (1-1)
Atalanta, RB Leipzig, Atletico Madrid, and Paris Saint-Germain all secured spots in the last 8 prior to the suspension of play.
The European football governing body also announced that the quarterfinal and semifinal draws will take place Friday.
UEFA confirmed in June that the quarterfinal stage and onward of Europe’s premiere football competition would be played from Aug. 12-23 in Lisbon, Portugal. Previously contested over two legs, the quarterfinal and semifinal phases will now be single-elimination matches.
UEFA also announced that all matches will take place behind closed doors until further notice.
Istanbul, which was scheduled to host this year’s final, will instead stage the showpiece contest in 2021.
Former NBA player Stephen Jackson defended DeSean Jackson on Tuesday night, saying the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver was “speaking the truth” with his social media posts, including an anti-Semitic message that he attributed to Adolf Hitler.
The Eagles called DeSean Jackson’s posts “offensive, harmful and absolutely appalling,” and the wide receiver later issued two separate statements of apology with “a promise to do better.”
“So I just read a statement that the Philadelphia Eagles posted regarding DeSean Jackson’s comments. He was trying to educate himself, educate people, and he’s speaking the truth. Right? He’s speaking the truth. You know he don’t hate nobody, but he’s speaking the truth of the facts that he knows and trying to educate others,” Stephen Jackson said in a video posted on Instagram.
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“But y’all don’t want us to educate ourselves. If it’s talking about the Black race, y’all ain’t saying nothing about it. They killing us, police killing us and treating us like s—, racism at an all-time high, but ain’t none of you NFL owners spoke up on that, ain’t none of you teams spoke up on that. But the same team had a receiver [Riley Cooper] who said the word n—– publicly! They gave him an extension! I play for the Big3. We have a Jewish owner. He understands where we stand and some of the things we say, but it’s not directed to him. It’s the way we’ve been treated.”
He later deleted the video but appeared to respond to backlash he received with another post:
Cooper, a former Eagles wide receiver who is white, shouted a racial slur at Black security guard at a Kenny Chesney concert in 2013. Cooper later apologized to his teammates and was signed to a five-year extension by the Eagles in 2014. He was released by the team in 2016.
Stephen Jackson, who retired from the NBA in 2014 after playing 14 seasons and winning a championship with San Antonio in 2003, has been a voice for social activism since the death of his friend George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police on Memorial Day. Jackson is a former NBA analyst for ESPN.
DeSean Jackson spoke with Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman — who both are Jewish — on Tuesday, a source told ESPN’s Tim McManus, with Lurie expressing deep disappointment about the social media posts. Jackson expressed a desire to educate himself and work directly with the Jewish community, and a short time later, his camp contacted the rabbi at Chabad Young Philly to discuss ways for Jackson to donate to and work with the organization.
The controversy spun out of Jackson’s Instagram story, on which he featured a quote he attributed to Hitler that said white Jews “will blackmail America. [They] will extort America, their plan for world domination won’t work if the Negroes know who they were.”
He also shared two posts on Instagram — on Saturday and on Monday — expressing admiration for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whom the Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center have identified as anti-Semitic. Those posts have since been deleted.
On Tuesday, Jackson posted an apology on Instagram, saying he “really didn’t realize what this passage [attributed to Hitler] was saying” and that he is “sorry for any hurt I have caused.”
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Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson apologizes after posting on his Instagram story an anti-Semitic message that he attributed to Adolf Hitler.
He posted an additional apology to his social media accounts after meeting with Lurie, saying “this apology is more than just words — it is a promise to do better.”
The Anti-Defamation League of Philadelphia on Tuesday said it appreciated his apology and said it was the organization’s “hope he uses this moment as a chance to work with the Jewish community and educate himself further on how dangerous and hurtful antisemitism is.”
Eagles wide receiver Marquise Goodwin, meanwhile, posted on Instagram on Wednesday that “the Jewish community is lashing out at me” for a comment he left on one of DeSean Jackson’s posts. Goodwin said his comment read: “I wish people commented this much on a BLM topic.”
Goodwin said Wednesday, regarding the reaction: “These disrespectful comments and threats need to stop.”
Stephen Jackson played in the Big3 in 2018 and ’19. The league canceled its 2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
