Champions League redraw: Atletico v Man Utd, PSG v Real Madrid – live reaction!

As per the below – “twice,” to quote Pep Guardiola – first legs will be played on 15/16/22/23 February, with second legs played on 8/9/15/16 March.

For those of you wondering why Villarreal had to play Juventus, it was because the teams left in the hat couldn’t be drawn against each other.

To me, at least, that looks a much more exciting draw than the one we had to begin with. Sporting v City should be a really fun tie, Paris v Madrid has plenty going on, Atletico v Man United is intriguing.

…Real Madrid.

Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid

Paris Saint-Germain will play…

…Liverpool.

Inter v Liverpool

Internazionale will play…

…Juventus.

Villarreal v Juventus

Villarreal will play…

…Man United.

Atletico v Manchester United

Atletico de Madrid will play…

…Lille.

Chelsea v Lille. As you were!

Chelsea will play…

…Ajax Amsterdam.

Benfica v Ajax

Benfica will play…

…Manchester City

Sporting v Man City. Great trip and Super Bock beer, difficult game.

Sporting Clube de Portugal will play…

…Bayern Munich.

Salzburg v Bayern, and Chelsea breathe a sigh of relief.

FC Salzburg will play…

Oh, he’s still there!

How are we going to pull this off without Andriy Arshavin?

Right massive, it’s back to Nyon and here’s or pal Marchetti apologising for a “malfunction of the software”. He doesn’t elaborate as to why no one – him, for example – said owt at the time, but the “external independent auditor” said the problem might have pre-existed the draw and now each tie will be checked by Uefa officials, who were presumably all out for lunch the first time.

“Would it not be more in keeping with Uefa’s thinking,” wonders Kevin Porter, “if, instead of a messy and complex draw, the choice of opponent was auctioned off to the highest bidder. That way the most wealthy club could buy the tie they most prefer. Which is, of course, how it should be.”

With the semis and final to take place, F1-style, in Qatar, Saudi and Abu Dhabi.

“While we’re at re-dos,” tweets Pete Mumola, “could we finally get one for the Qatar World Cup selection? TIA.”

For that, I will gladly spend tomorrow writing another blog suffused with official intervention.

You know what’d be good: a proper cover of the Champions League anthem. I’d fancy hearing a Radiohead version, and I’m pretty sure Goldie could also do something serious with it.

“I’ve designed an infallible algorithm – the same one Uefa uses to count balls in pot,” emails Paul Griffin. “The best covers answer is below. I’m Fervently hoping Everton, Max Verstappen, or Salvador Dali come out in draw 2.0.”

Pep Guardiola speaks:

A Europa reminder…

“A great example for cruciate injury recovery is Ronaldo – Original Ronaldo,” says Peter Van. “Such a great example you can use it to further or to contradict your point about Van Dijk. After his horrific knee injury, Ronaldo came back to win the World Cup and the Champions League. He was still a fabulous player and had the most successful part of his career post-injury, at least in terms of trophies. HOWEVER! I would argue that Ronaldo lost much after that injury. He was still great, but not as great as in his Barcelona / Inter glory. After his injury, he was still one the world’s best players; but before, he was the greatest player I have ever seen. If you’re in need of evidence, well, I’ll point out to a piece you’re surely familiar with.”

Any excuse. But yup, he was still brilliant, just not as brilliant.

For those of you just joining us, we’re shortly going to enjoy a do-over of the Champions League last 16 draw, because the wrong balls were taken out of the wrong pots at the wrong times, so some clubs weren’t in position to picked to play teams they could legitimately face.

Check out the latest Football Weekly!

On the too many penalties point, they need to change the laws. Denial of a goalscoring opportunity anywhere on the pitch, penalty; foul or handball in the box but no goalscoring opportunity, direct free-kick.

Sometimes the answers come fast. Here’s Dan Christmas: “Divine Comedy wrote My Lovely Horse, so it surely does not belong on a list of great covers. I demand a redraw. “

I was on the F1 yesterday, and now I’m on this today. Can’t wait for tomorrow.

“External service provider” though, you’ve got to laugh. Did the “external service provider” decide to plough on with the draw when everyone could see it wasn’t fair as well?

We’re getting a lot of cover-version chat, so here are some:

Michael Meagher: “Granted there should be an embargo on this song ever being played anywhere for at least a decade. However, waaaaay better than the Jeff Buckley version:

Kevin Dwyer: “Divine Comedy covering My Lovely Horse at Electric Picnic.”

Iain Pearson: “Bob Dylan got a shout-out for his Clash cover, so how about I Fought the Law as a banging cover of a banging original?” Police and Thieves ismy favourite of theirs, but this also approved.

Giles Skerry and Martin Constantinides:

“Great example for prosecution on cruciate injuries is Van Nistelrooy,” emails Cristopher Dale. “The player United signed in 2001 was significantly diminished from the player they agreed to sign in 2000.”

That is an absolutely befuddling thought, given how good he still was, but yup, I’ve heard that from elsewhere – though I didn’t see him play for PSV.

Does anyone else see the words Bodo/Glimt and think:

Er, OK then, just me. But what a tie that is for Celtic, nothing better than a trip somewhere you’d likely never go otherwise, and watching your players freeze to boot.

We’ve got a technical issue interrupting the Conference League draw, of course we do. We pause to sort it, rather than style it out because no one will notice.