Champions League draw error forces fresh draw

The Champions League last-16 draw will take place again at 3pm (CET) after a “technical problem” caused an error in the first one.

Manchester United were initially drawn to face Villarreal but this was not allowed under tournament rules as they had been in the same group.

Instead, the Spanish side were paired with Manchester City, while United drew Paris St-Germain.

In a statement, UEFA said the draw had been “declared void”.

The error was attributed to a “technical problem” with a third-party software and the draw has been postponed to 3pm (CET).

UEFA said: “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. As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 3pm (CET).”

A second administrative error saw United excluded from the pot of possible opponents for Atletico Madrid and Liverpool included instead, although United could have played the Spanish side and Liverpool could not, having progressed into the knockout stage from the same group.

Atletico were drawn to face Bayern Munich but following the draw, the La Liga champions said they were in talks with UEFA “to ask for explanations and a solution after the mistakes made”.