After the partial closure of their stadium was postponed, Atletico Madrid will host a packed house for their Champions League second leg against Manchester City.
Due to suspected racist behavior in the 1-0 away defeat to City, UEFA has ordered Atletico to close a 5,000-seat section for their next encounter.
Although UEFA only charged Atletico last Friday, this appeared to hint that the Wanda Metropolitano will be partially shuttered for the return encounter on Wednesday.
Due to the proximity of Atletico’s next home encounter in European play, the LaLiga champions filed an urgent plea with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to have the ban postponed.
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And Atletico won the bid, which means the punishment will not be carried out.
“Atletico’s urgent request to stay the execution of the challenged decision was granted by CAS earlier today, considering the serious repercussions to local security if the partial stadium closure had to be enforced at this late stage,” read a CAS media release on Wednesday.
“However, the partial closure of 5,000 seats of Atletico’s stadium will be automatically lifted after the UEFA Champions League quarter-final match.”
