The Atatürk Olympic Stadium will forever hold its place in soccer history as the venue of one of the most dramatic Champions League finals of all time. In 2005, it staged “The Miracle of Istanbul,” where Liverpool came back from a 3-0 halftime deficit to beat AC Milan.
Sadly, the Atatürk Olympic Stadium may soon be famous for something else: not staging the 2020 edition of the final.
If not for the COVID-19 outbreak, UEFA’s showpiece event would be taking place in Istanbul this coming weekend. Liverpool would not be involved on this occasion, having crashed out of the competition against Atletico Madrid two days before it was postponed, in a match at Anfield that has been widely blamed for exacerbating the coronavirus death toll in the UK.