There was controversy in Monday’s Champions League last-16 draw after a technical error appeared to leave Manchester United excluded from the draw for a possible tie against Atletico Madrid.
The process for the draw sees one of the competition’s eight unseeded teams drawn from a pot, before balls containing the names of each of their possible seeded opponents are put into a separate pot and one is selected at random.
The issue began when United were erroneously included as one of the teams who could face another Spanish side, Villarreal. The two clubs had already met in the group stage and as such were not eligible to face each other in the first knockout round.
That mistake was corrected when United’s ball was drawn, with a redraw pitting Villarreal against Manchester City instead.
However, the draw then proceeded as if United had already been allocated a tie and as such their ball did not appear to be included in the pot to face the next unseeded team, Atletico Madrid.
United were then included in the remainder of their eligible draws and ended up with a crunch fixture against French giants Paris Saint-Germain, which will pit Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo against one another for what could prove one of the final times in their career.
