UEFA To Re-Draw Champions League Last 16 After Blunder On Manchester United

UEFA has canceled the Round of 16 Champions League draws held earlier after a huge blunder, ENigeria Newspaper reports.

The error was made during the draw regarding Manchester United, Liverpool and Atletico Madrid.

Manchester United was not seeded as group winners and put in the pot of potential opponents for Atletico Madrid, who instead got Bayern Munich.

United were first erroneously drawn against Villarreal, a side they had already been paired within Group F.

Also, Liverpool were mistakenly put into the pot to potentially face Atletico despite playing them in the group stages.

In a statement on Monday afternoon, UEFA said the error was caused by a technical problem with the software of an external service provider used during the draws.

The body stated that the draw has been declared void and a redraw will take place by 2 pm UK time.

The mix-up was an embarrassment for UEFA, who has described the situation as a technical error.

The UEFA 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,” the body confirmed.

“As a result of this, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at 1500 CET.”