Shropshire Star

Wolves' Europa League journey to resume in August

Wolves will travel to Germany to conclude the Europa League if they emerge victorious in their second leg tie with Olympiacos – which may not be held at Molineux.

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Pedro Neto celebrates against Olympiacos (AMA)

The two clubs drew 1-1 in March in the first leg of the round of 16 before the coronavirus outbreak suspended all fixtures.

UEFA's executive committee met this afternoon to come to a final decision on how to finish the current Champions League and Europe League campaigns – concluding that the Europa League quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will be played as a straight knockout tournament across four German cities – Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Gelsenkirchen.

Those games will be played from August 10 to 21 and will be single leg ties.

Before that, Wolves will have to overcome their Greek opponents in the second leg of their round of 16 clash, but UEFA officials have admitted that they are undecided as to whether those games will take place at their original venues or in Germany.

This means that Wolves may miss out on the chance to play another European game at Molineux this season. The final round of 16 games will take place on August 5 and 6.

The Gdańsk Stadium in Poland, which was due to host this year's final, will now host the 2020/21 final with the subsequent venues agreeing to old their finals a year later.

A decision has also been made to allow clubs to make five substitutions in the remaining 2019/20 matches, but that it will return to three for next season. In addition, clubs can register three new players to their squad lists for the competition, however they can not be newly transferred players.

Meanwhile, the governing body is set to announce their 'medical protocol' for fixtures, with fans unlikely to return at this stage.

A UEFA statement read: "The key principles of the UEFA medical protocol have also been approved, and detailed guidelines will now be finalised over the next few weeks to ensure that a thorough sanitary plan be put in place to protect the health of all participants to UEFA matches when the competitions resume.

"UEFA will be regularly assessing the situation across the continent and will liaise with local authorities to see when spectators could gradually return."