The first is good, much less the second for the Italians. Especially for Inter who, after the second draw for the round of XNUMX of the UEFA Champions League, will have to deal with Liverpool. More affordable, but still more difficult than the first, the challenge of Massimiliano Allegri's Juventus who will face Villareal winners of the last Europa League. During the first draw, things went much better for both: Inter had drawn the Dutch from Ajax, Juventus from Sporting Lisbon. The bianconeri will play their first match away, the nerazzurri at San Siro.
The other direct clashes will be Salzburg-Bayern Monaco, Sporting Lisbon-Manchester City, Benfica-Ajax, Chelsea-Lille, Atletico Madrid-Manchester United, Paris Saint Germain -Real Madrid.
The canceled pairings were instead: Benfica – Real Madrid, Villareal – Manchester City, Atletico Madrid – Bayern Munich, Salzburg – Liverpool, Inter – Ajax, Sporting Cp – Juventus, Chelsea – Lille, Paris Saint-Germain – Manchester United.
The first leg matches will be played on February 15th, 16th, 22nd and 23rd and the return matches on March 8th, 9th, 15th and 16th.
THE MISTAKES OF THE FIRST DRAW
“Following a glitch with an external service provider's software which instructs officials which teams are eligible to play against each other, a clerical error has occurred in the draw for the UEFA Round of 15.00 Champions League. Consequently, the draw has been declared void and will be entirely redone at XNUMX” reads the note published by UEFA.
A sensational mistake that called everything into question. There were actually two errors. The first involved Villareal and Manchester United, two teams that shouldn't have faced each other because they had already met during the group stage and which instead found themselves face to face also in the round of XNUMX. The mistake was then corrected on the run and Villareal picked up City. As if that weren't enough, Liverpool had been included among the teams that could have challenged Atletico Madrid instead of Manchester United.
After the announcement of the decision to proceed according to the draw, Real Madrid protested, claiming that the mistakes would have occurred after Benfica and Real had already been paired up. However, there was nothing to be done, with UEFA deciding to repeat everything anyway.
THE EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW
Unlucky draw for two of the three Italians involved in the Europa League. In fact, Napoli will have to face Barcelona (first away match), while Lazio will face Porto (going to Portugal). Atalanta's commitment to the Greek side Olympiacos is more affordable (the first match will be in Bergano.
Outward matches will be held on 17 February, the return matches on 24 February.
In the other playoffs, Sevilla-Dinamo Zagreb, Leipzig-Real Sociedad, Zenit St. Petersburg-Betis, Borussia Dortmund-Rangers, Sheriff-Braga will face each other.
