Following a technical problem as stated by UEFA, Paris Saint-Germain will play Real Madrid while Liverpool take on Inter Milan in two of the standout ties in the last 16 of the Champions League after UEFA was forced to redo Monday’s draw.
PSG had initially been paired together with Manchester United in a tie that would have seen old rivals Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo come up against one another.
However, the reworked draw sees them play record 13-time European champions Real while the Old Trafford side will face Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.
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UEFA had earlier blamed a “material error” due to a “technical problem with the software of an external service provider” as it announced that the draw for the first knockout round of its flagship competition would have to be redone three hours later.
With the draw being streamed live from UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, the problem was made evident when Manchester United’s name was drawn to face Villarreal, despite the fact the two clubs could not have played one another having been in the same group.
The ball containing United’s name did not then appear to be replaced correctly and so they were not included as possible opponents for the next team to come out of the pot.
With the whole draw compromised, a red-faced UEFA was left with little choice but to start again.
Qatar-owned PSG, with their array of attacking stars in Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Angel Di Maria, now face a Real side currently top of La Liga, managed by former Paris coach Carlo Ancelotti.
The Spaniards knocked PSG out at the same stage in 2017/18 and relations between the clubs have recently been at a low ebb with Real openly courting the signature of Mbappe, whose contract expires at the end of this season.
Madrid are unlikely to be happy with the new draw as they had initially been given an easier tie on paper against Benfica in the very first match-up before the problems occurred.
“It was surprising, shameful and difficult to understand considering millions of viewers were waiting for the draw,” Madrid’s director of institutional relations, former player Emilio Butragueno, told the club’s television channel. (SuperSports)
