How to Watch the 2020 UEFA Champions League Final in Australia

How to Watch the 2020 UEFA Champions League Final in Australia
Contributor: Mariam Gabaji
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The 2020 UEFA Champions League final is all set for Monday, 24 August. Here’s how you can watch the big game in Australia.

What is the UEFA Champions League?

The UEFA Champions League brings together the top-division clubs across Europe’s various competitions and is considered the most prestigious football tournament on the continent.

The qualification rounds kicked off in June last year before 32 teams qualified to compete in the group stage in September. Fast forward to March 2020 and we were in the midst of the second leg of the round-of-16 ties before the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic took over, forcing the tournament to be postponed.

When did the Champions League restart?

The Champions League made a return on 8 August, but as goes with most games played in Europe, the time difference hasn’t been on our side — unless you’re a very earlier riser. All the games thus far have taken place at 5:00am.

Champions League results: Quarter-finals and semis

Quarter-finals

August 13 

  • Paris St-Germain beat Atalanta 2-1

August 14 

  • RB Leipzig beat Atletico Madrid 2-1

August 15 

  • Barcelona vs Bayern Munich 2-8

August 16 

  • Manchester City vs Lyon 1-3

Semi-finals

August 19 

  • RB Leipzig v Paris St-Germain 0-3

August 20 

  • Lyon v Bayern 0-3

Who’s playing in the Champions League final this year?

The big clash will take place between Paris St-Germain and Bayern on Monday, 24 August, 5:00am AEST at Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal.

How to watch the Champions League final live in Australia

Optus Sport

Unless you’re using a VPN, the only way to watch Champions League fixtures in Australia is via Optus Sport, which will set you back $14.99 per month. However, as of this weekend, Optus is giving locked down Victorians complimentary access to the service. If you’re in the state, all you have to do is download Optus Sport on your preferred platoform and watch Champions League for free.

If you’re outside Victoria, you will still need to download the service via the Apple or Google Play stores. You’ll be able to watch games on all Android & iOS devices as well as Fetch TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, Xbox One S and Xbox One X.

Use a VPN instead

When it comes to consumer rights, deliberately circumventing geo-blocks is a murky area. However, there are currently no laws prohibiting the practice in Australia. Optus might not like it, but you can’t be fined.

Once again, BT Sport has exclusive rights to show the Champions League in the UK, so that’s your go-to channel if you’re using a VPN.

Installing one will enable you to to alter your IP address to tune into a channel being aired in another country. We have a couple of strong VPN recommendations below, but if you’re after a wider selection, check out our list of the best VPNs from last year.

PureVPN

PureVPN is currently offering a 15-day trial for only $0.99 after which you can pay $10.95 for a per month plan or $8.33 for a six-month plan (priced after a 24 per cent discount). Once you’re done watching sports, you can even use it to access US Netflix.

NordVPN

You can use NordVPN to watch the final too. As part of its sale, the service is offering its two-year plan at a 68 per cent discount so you only have to pay $3.71 per month or $89 for the first two years. Otherwise, you can also get the 6-month plan for $9 per month and save 24% on the total cost.

If you don’t want to commit long-term, there’s an option to pay $11.95 per month and cancel anytime.

This article was originally written by Chris Jager and has been updated with the latest information. 


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At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

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