By Mukwuzi Joseph
UEFA will have to redraw the Champions League round of 16 ties after a balls-up with this morning’s ceremony.
Shambolic scenes unfolded in Nyon earlier today, with an error involving Manchester United’s place in the draw.
Villarreal was initially paired with United – which would have been an impossible tie given those sides were in the same group.
There was then a brief delay to proceedings before Atletico Madrid was teed up with a tie against Bayern Munich.
But it seems those conducting the draw on behalf of UEFA did not put United’s ball in the pot as one of the teams to potentially play Atletico.
Quotes from Jurgen Klopp were even published on the club website shortly after, with the boss saying: “The draw is the draw and now we know who we prepare for. Salzburg has qualified for the knockout stages for the first time, so there will be big excitement there. We’ve played there a couple of years ago and it was a tough game and will be again.”
However, there will now be another draw at 2 pm given the mistakes cast doubt over the validity of the permutations, probabilities, and pairings.
