Premier Cup

The Premier Cup was a one-off football tournament held to mark the coronation of Queen Alexandra on 1 August 2019. Contested between sixteen football clubs, the tournament lasted for over four weeks, beginning on 18 May 2019 and ending on 1 June 2019.

Consisting of a total of sixteen clubs, in alphabetical order, the teams that competed in the tournament were:

• Aberdeen
• Ajax
• AZ Alkmaar
• Bayern Munich
• Borussia Dortmund
• Celtic
• Chelsea
• Club Brugge
• Gent
• Liverpool
• Manchester City
• Manchester United
• Motherwell
• Rangers
• Werder Bremen
• Wolfsburg

In total, the tournament consisted of four stages, namely the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals along with the third-place playoffs, all of which are one-legged occasions. Meanwhile, the clubs that compete in the tournament are drawn against one another at random via a televised lucky draw, and their fixtures in the round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals are played simultaneously. Meanwhile, the finals were held at Wembley Stadium, London while the third-place playoffs were held at Old Trafford, Manchester.

Similar to most football tournaments, penalty shootouts were used to break any potential deadlocks. Meanwhile, a player who has picked up two cumulative yellow cards or simply a red card is declared ineligible for the next match and must therefore wait out the suspension period before being allowed to return.

Venue

For the tournament, a total of ten stadiums across England were used, namely Wembley Stadium, Old Trafford, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London Stadium, Anfield, Emirates Stadium, City of Manchester Stadium, St James' Park, Stadium of Light, and Villa Park.

Overall, all but two of the chosen stadiums served as venues for the round of 16, quarter-finals, and semi-finals while the Wembley Stadium in London and Old Trafford in Manchester hosted the finals and third-place playoffs respectively.

Draw

For the round of 16, the clubs competing in the tournament were randomly paired against each other via a lucky draw held on 14 May 2019. The results of the draw, which was televised live on multiple channels including BBC Sport, Sky Sports, and beIN Sports, are as follows:

• Manchester City v Gent
• AZ Alkmaar v Borussia Dortmund
• Motherwell v Aberdeen
• Club Brugge v Werder Bremen
• Celtic v Bayern Munich
• Manchester United v Rangers
• Chelsea v Liverpool
• Wolfsburg v Ajax

Round of 16

On 18 May 2019, the first four matches of the round of 16 took place. In this, Manchester City swiftly met expectations by defeating Gent 7-0 in a one-sided affair. Likewise, Borussia Dortmund also defeated AZ Alkmaar 3-0 in a comfortable fashion to progress to the next round. Meanwhile, in a memorable contest between two minor Scottish sides, Motherwell defeated Aberdeen 4-1 on penalties following a 1-1 draw to emerge victorious whereas Werder Bremen also progressed to the next round by defeating Club Brugge 2-0.

On 19 May 2019, the last four matches of the round of 16 took place. In this, German giants Bayern Munich swiftly dispatched Scottish giants Celtic 4-1 to advance to the next round. Meanwhile, despite some difficulty that resulted in an unexpected 2-2 draw, Manchester United prevailed to eliminate Celtic's arch-rivals Rangers 4-3 on penalties while English champions Liverpool comfortably saw off Chelsea in a 3-0 win whereas Dutch champions Ajax were dealt an early exit in a surprise 1-2 loss to German side Wolfsburg.

Quarter-finals

On 22 May 2019, all four matches of the quarter-finals simultaneously took place. In this, Manchester United, drawn against Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund, were subsequently eliminated by their German opponents 4-2 on penalties following a 1-1 draw in which costly errors by Marcus Rashford and Fred saw Borussia Dortmund advance to the semi-finals. Meanwhile, Manchester City again met most expectations by defeating Scottish minnows Motherwell 4-0 whereas both English champions Liverpool and German champions Bayern Munich comfortably saw off their respective German opponents, namely Wolfsburg and Werder Bremen.

Semi-Finals

On 26 May 2019, both semi-final matches took place. In this, Premier League champions Liverpool narrowly defeated Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund 1-0 via a late Naby Keïta goal in the 87th minute while a brace from Joshua Kimmich allowed Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich to defeat Premier League runners-up Manchester City 2-1 in a thrilling comeback win where their English opponents took the initial lead in the 26th minute via Raheem Sterling before Joshua Kimmich scored the equaliser in the 32nd minute and later a second tiebreaking goal late in the 108th minute to deliver the victory for Bayern Munich.

Finals & Third-Place Playoffs

On 30 May 2019, in a much-anticipated showdown between the English and German champions at Wembley Stadium, Liverpool, courtesy of an own-goal from Joshua Kimmich and a brace from Mohamed Salah late in extra time, defeated Bayern Munich 3-1. In this, the German club initially managed to draw with their English counterparts via Philippe Coutinho, who scored against his parent club, before the dramatic sending-off of Thomas Müller in extra time allowed Liverpool to finally break the deadlock by finding the net twice via Mohamed Salah who scored twice within three minutes past goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, effectively sealing the victory for the English club.

Meanwhile, on 1 June 2019, the third-place playoffs between the losers of the semi-finals took place at Old Trafford. In a thrilling and dramatic encounter, Borussia Dortmund defeated Manchester City 5-4 on penalties following a 2-2 draw. In this, Borussia Dortmund first took the lead in the closing minutes of the first half via Marco Reus before Manchester City subsequently found an equaliser in the 62nd minute via Sergio Agüero who successfully converted a penalty to put both sides on level terms. Then, late in extra time, a 108th-minute goal from Kevin De Bruyne initially looked set to reward Manchester City with a hard-fought victory before Borussia Dortmund's Marco Reus soon scored his second goal in the 115th minute to deny their English opponents a quick victory, thereby resulting in a penalty shootout where an error by Manchester City's third penalty taker Bernardo Silva was capitalised upon by Borussia Dortmund's Mats Hummels who later scored the winning goal past goalkeeper Ederson.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the match, with a total of six goals scored, Manchester City's Sergio Agüero was named the tournament's top goalscorer while the designation of top assister was shared between Joshua Kimmich, Joël Matip, João Cancelo, Nico Schulz, and Mario Götze. Meanwhile, having only conceded one goal throughout the entirety of the tournament, namely in his side's 3-1 win in the finals, Liverpool's Alisson Becker was named the tournament's best goalkeeper.

In overall terms, both the tournament's reception and assessment were judged to be overwhelmingly positive with pundits particularly praising the nerve-wracking and dramatic nature of some of the matches. Meanwhile, with only one player sent off during the entire course of the tournament, namely Bayern Munich's Thomas Müller, its level of discipline has been met with praise from many and so has the quality of referees overseeing the matches.