UEFA have confirmed that the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League will be redone at 14:00 GMT, after a technical mistake.
Manchester United’s name was pulled out in error as opponents for Villarreal, but the Reds are not eligible to face the Spanish club after playing them in the group stage.
Ralf Rangnick’s men were then pitted against Paris Saint-Germain later in the draw, the final pairing out, but after an investigation, UEFA has deemed that the process had been compromised and must be repeated.
“Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that instructs the officials as to which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the UEFA Champions League round of 16,” confirmed UEFA in an official statement.
“As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 1500 CET [14:00 GMT].”
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.
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Manchester City was drawn to play the Spanish side, but the ball containing United’s name did not then appear to be replaced correctly and so they were not included as possible opponents for Atletico Madrid in the next tie.
With the whole draw compromised, a red-faced UEFA was left with little choice but to start again from scratch.
But remember, there are no longer away goals in the Champions League.
The first legs will be played across February 15/16 and 22/23, while the second legs will be played across March 8/9 and 15/16.
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