Bizzare Scenes on UCL Round of 16 Draw
Written by RadioVuna on December 14, 2021
Due to flaws that were discovered during the initial method, UEFA was compelled to rerun the Champions League Round of 16 draw, which was an extraordinary turn of events. This compelled the European Union’s ruling authority to declare the results null and invalid and compel a redraw three hours later.
The results of the first draw produced eight pairings, one of which was a PSG vs. Manchester United tie in which Lionel Messi would have faced Cristiano Ronaldo. However, owing to faults with third-party software, UEFA had to postpone that fantasy matchup until a later date.
According to tournament regulations, opponents of the same group and nation are not supposed to square off against one another; nevertheless, the software seems to have failed to comply to these restrictions.
The first inaccuracy was shown on live television when Manchester United was drawn to play Villarreal in the first round of the competition. Except for the fact that Man United should just not have been in the mix in the first place since the Red Devils were in the same group as Villarreal. When the name of Manchester United was called out, the authorities realized they had made a mistake and promptly called out the name of Manchester City.
However, one oversight resulted in another. It was a misunderstanding that Manchester United were not included in the pot when it came time to choose their Atletico Madrid opponents for the Round of 16; the Red Devils were wrongly removed since they had been “already drawn” in the previous round. However, this was done inadvertently at first.
The problems prompted Atletico Madrid to request an explanation from UEFA “as well as a remedy in light of the mistakes made during the draw for the Champions League Round of 16.” The news of the re-draw followed just a few minutes later, as expected.
Real Madrid was among the clubs who contacted UEFA regarding the draw, according to reports. The Spanish club wanted their draw against Benfica to stand, as did the rest of the teams. It’s evident that Los Merengues preferred their initial draw, and they’ll have to make do with a far harder battle against PSG.
UEFA Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchettin expressed regret that the organization had to reconvene for the second time before the subsequent draw took place. “There were some complications that were created by a fault that was handled by an independent service provider.
Below are the Final Draws: