Champs League redraw fiasco

LONDON • Andrey Arshavin, as Uefa's guest of the night, drew the Champions League last-16 fixtures yesterday and set up a mouthwatering match between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

But they had to draw it again, and that glamour match was gone.

A "technical problem" meant the Champions League was redrawn, leading to mostly new match-ups - easier for some, harder for others - and shattering fans' dreams of Paris Saint-Germain v Manchester United in the first phase of the knockout stage.

After the initial draw, fans and teams began posting on social media hyping up the match-ups.

In the end, only one of those games will happen after officials reconvened some three hours later to draw the teams again.

In the initial draw, United were matched with Villarreal. But both had met in the group stage, so a new name was pulled, giving Villarreal a match against Manchester City instead.

At that point, the ball with United's name should have been put back in the bowl. That did not happen, so the Red Devils did not have a chance to be drawn against the next team, Atletico Madrid.

The rest of the names were pulled, and the draw was concluded. But due to the slip-up, Uefa decided the fairest course was to pull all 16 teams again.

The European football governing body was happy to try to shift the blame for the goof, saying: "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 Champions League round of 16."

After the redraw, holders Chelsea wound up drawn against Lille, just as they had in the first draw. The other seven match-ups were, however, different.

Of all the clubs, Real were reportedly the most unhappy. The La Liga leaders had a very winnable match against Benfica, only to wind up playing PSG.

"It is a lie that it was a software error," a club source told ESPN. "It is human error, beginning with the second pairing. Our pairing (with Benfica) was legal."

Real's director of institutional relations Emilio Butragueno also described the fiasco as "surprising, regrettable and very hard to understand, when you take into account the millions of fans who were following the draw".

Liverpool can also feel hard done by as they must now take on the comparatively harder Inter Milan, the reigning Italian champions, as opposed to Salzburg.

But City boss Pep Guardiola was in a forgiving mood, saying: "It would be a mistake not to repeat, there would be suspicions. These things can happen, to managers, players and Uefa too."

In the Europa League knockout round play-offs stage, Barcelona, in Europe's second-tier competition for the first time in 17 years, will square off against Napoli.

Tottenham could face Rapid Vienna in the Europa Conference League play-offs if they get the opportunity to beat Rennes, while Leicester play Randers.

NYTIMES