VfL still has four game days ahead of them in the Bundesliga, but after that the season doesn’t have to be over for Wout Weghorst and Co., because the Wolfsburg Bundesliga club is also represented in the Europa League. The Wolfsburg had lost the first knockout round match against Shakhtar Donetsk in the VW arena with 1: 2. Will the second leg still exist? Not excluded! In the Europa League, a final tournament could take place in North Rhine-Westphalia – including in Düsseldorf, in the home of Jörg Schmadtke. “Of course I would find that best, since I would have a home game and could live at home …” says the VfL manager with a smile.
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VfL against Shakhtar Donetsk – The pictures of the ghost game
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Wolfsburg, Germany. 11.03.2020, FOOTBALL – VfL Wolfsburg vs Shakhtar Donetsk, Europa League, round of 16, season 2019/20, Volkswagen Arena. Picture shows: Both teams before kick-off
Photo: VfL Wolfsburg / Sebastian Priebe
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The final tournament of the Europa League is to take place in Germany – at least that is the plan of the DFB. The association will not only apply to the city of Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region as the venue for UEFA, but also to NRW. According to SPORTBUZZER information, the games are to be played in Gelsenkirchen, Cologne and Düsseldorf. The picture also reports of Duisburg as the fourth option. Mönchengladbach and Dortmund, however, rejected the DFB request for our information.
Schmadtke had been somewhat skeptical about the continuation of the competition due to the many uncertainties, but it had assumed that “UEFA was trying to finish the competition”. Now that’s being tried, but the 56-year-old remains skeptical. He also says why: “At the moment, I cannot imagine that we will travel to Ukraine with the team. Nor can I imagine that the Ukrainian team will come to us. And when I hear that the whole thing is supposed to take place at the beginning of August, it may disrupt a team’s complete preparation plan for the new season. “
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The final decision will be made at the UEFA Executive Committee meeting on 17 and 18 June. Like the Champions League, the competition had been interrupted in the middle of March due to the spreading corona pandemic in the second round. As in the premier class, the remaining games are to be held as a blitz tournament at a location between mid and late August.
The plan for the blitz tournament stipulates that the participating teams live in one place, the matches are to be played in different stadiums in the area. The advantage of NRW compared to an application from the Rhein-Main area: All venues are located in one federal state, while the federalism system in Frankfurt (Hesse), Sinsheim (Baden-Württemberg) and Mainz (Rhineland-Palatinate) means that different hygiene rules apply.
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