After a surprising turn of events in which UEFA called a “technical error” which involved Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and Manchester United, the re-draw has now taken place and Liverpool now face Serie A champions Inter Milan, while Real Madrid draws Paris Saint Germain.
UEFA director Giorgio Marchetti said ahead of the redraw: “I apologize we have had to redraw to do the round-of-16 draw. There were some errors made in the original draw.” Manchester United will now face Atlético Madrid in the last 16 of the Champions League after a redraw prompted by a clerical error which had left them due to play Paris Saint-Germain.
In the initial draw, United had been wrongly pulled out to face Villarreal and then excluded from the possibility of meeting Atlético. Video evidence also showed that Liverpool had been incorrectly placed in the bowl to face Atlético when the teams were ineligible to meet having been in the same group.
Bayern Munich who were scheduled to face Atletico Madrid in the earlier draw have now been scheduled to face FC Salzburg.
Inter, who first had been drawn against Ajax, will now face Liverpool while Chelsea and Lille were paired together for the second time.
Real Madrid will have cause to feel hard done-by after their initial tie against Benfica was replaced by one against PSG. The two European heavyweights will clash next year in the pick of the ties.
Group winners will be away in the first leg, with ties to be played on Feb. 15-16 and Feb. 22-23. Return legs will be played on March 8-9 and March 15-16.
Round-of-16 draw
FC Salzburg vs. Bayern Munich
Sporting CP vs. Manchester City
Benfica vs. Ajax
Chelsea vs. Lille
Atletico Madrid vs. Manchester United
Villarreal vs. Juventus
Inter vs. Liverpool
Paris Saint-Germain vs. Real Madrid
