Lausanne (AFP)

The Champions League quarter-final between Leipzig and Atlético Madrid is "scheduled as planned" Thursday, UEFA assured Monday, the day after the announcement of positive Covid-19 tests for two members of the Spanish club.

The quarter-final between Leipzig and Atlético Madrid "is scheduled as planned. We have no further comments," a UEFA spokesperson told AFP.

The meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 9:00 p.m. (19:00 GMT) in Lisbon.

The Madrid club announced on Sunday that two of its members, whose identity has not been revealed, have tested positive for Covid-19.

Asked by AFP, UEFA did not say whether they were players or members of the management.

According to Atlético, after tests carried out on Saturday, "two positive cases (...) are confined to their respective homes" and their names "were immediately communicated to the Spanish and Portuguese health authorities, to UEFA, to the Federation Spanish, to the Portuguese Federation and to the Spanish Superior Sports Council.

The "colchonero" club was to conduct a new series of tests with those who have been in contact with the infected people. UEFA did not say when these results would be known.

Interrupted by the pandemic, the Champions League, which resumed Friday and Saturday with the round of 16 second leg which could not be played before confinement, must know its outcome during a "Final 8" unpublished and condensed, organized in Lisbon from August 12 to 23.

A 33-page health protocol has been issued by UEFA to govern its European competitions.

- Isolation -

According to this protocol, each team must provide test results before traveling to Portugal, and will be tested again on the eve of their first meeting. Each positive test will impose isolation of the player at his hotel.

To be able to play, a team will need to have 13 healthy players, including a goalkeeper, according to an annex to the protocol.

If a team does not have 13 footballers on the previously submitted "A list" of eligible players, UEFA "may authorize the rescheduling of the match".

If the match cannot be rescheduled, the team that cannot field 13 players "will be held responsible" and will have lost the match by a score of 3 to 0, further provides in the annex.

While UEFA is betting on a final tournament with a forced march between August 12 and 23 and hopes to succeed in creating a health bubble in the Portuguese capital, the timing of these two positive cases at Atlético may cause concern in view of an end of the competition leaving almost no room for maneuver for possible postponements of matches.

The European football body can however hope that Atlético will have managed its health protocol as well as Real Madrid had done in recent days. Real striker Mariano Diaz had indeed tested positive for Covid-19 before the round of 16 second leg of C1 on Manchester City on Friday, but this case remained isolated and in no way disturbed the holding of the meeting.

© 2020 AFP