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The controversy marked the match day of the UFA Champions League teams because the draw had to be repeated due to a technical error, something reminiscent of the episode that took place in the 1982 World Cup draw. After the failure, the most anticipated duel of the knockout stages of the Champions League is that of PSG against Real Madrid.
An unexpected event marked the matchday in the UEFA Champions League. The draw for the knockout stages was completely replayed at 15:00 (14 GMT) due to a technical error. The ruling has sparked controversy among millions of fans who followed the event live. Now, the most attractive duel is that of Paris Saint Germain against Real Madrid.
Another promising match is Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United against Atlético de Madrid. Bayern Munich, one of the favorites to win the tournament, will face RB Salzburg, the first Austrian team to qualify for the round of 16 in history.
Reigning cup champions Chelsea will play France’s Lille, and runner-up Manchester City will do the same against Sporting Lisbon.
Meanwhile, Ajax Amsterdam, the winners of all six group stage matches, will face Benfica; Juventus from Turin will play against Villarreal; and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, against Inter Milan.
In this way, the great absentees from the knockout stages of the Champions League are Barcelona and Erling Haaland’s Borussia Dortmund, after being eliminated in the group stage in a surprising way.
The first leg matches will be played on February 15 and 16 and on February 22 and 23. The return ones are scheduled to take place on March 8, 9, 15 and 16. The seeded teams will play the second leg at home.
Why was the Champions League draw repeated?
In a statement, UEFA explained the reason why the Champions League draw had to be re-held, where the most exciting duel was that of PSG against Manchester United, with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as figures of each team.
“Following a technical problem with the software of an external service provider that tells officials which teams are eligible to play each other, a material error occurred in the draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League. UEFA. As a consequence, the draw has been declared void and will be redone in its entirety at 3:00 pm CET, “the statement read.
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.
– UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) December 13, 2021
The problem arose when the former Russian player, Andrey Arshavin, took Manchester United’s ball out of one of the pots as a rival of Villarreal, the team he had faced in the group stage. Then something similar happened with Atlético de Madrid. The regulations indicate that neither teams from the same country nor clubs that have already met in the first round of the championship can meet in the eighth.
Indeed, this incident drew the attention of several teams, who requested that the draw be re-conducted. Among them, Atlético de Madrid, who reported shortly after that they were “in talks with UEFA to ask for explanations and a solution after the mistakes made in the round of 16 draw.”
For his part, Emilio Butragueño, Real Madrid’s director of Institutional Relations, said that the first draw “was surprising, regrettable and very difficult to understand what happened. Millions of people were waiting for the draw.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp thought UEFA was right to redo the draw. “I saw it live and I thought, ‘You can’t let it stay like this, there’s no chance.’ They definitely had to do it again. “
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola agreed with Klopp. “I think it’s fair,” he said. “It was a mistake and things like this sometimes happen. (A redesign) makes sense, so there’s no suspicion.”
In the 1982 World Cup draw, something similar happened, when then-FIFA Secretary General Sepp Blatter tried to prevent any of the four South American qualifiers from being in the same group. However, FIFA did not follow the procedure it had outlined and placed the selected teams in the wrong groups, causing confusion among the spectators.
With EFE
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