The UEFA Champions League 2023/24 round of 16 draw ceremony was held in Nyon, Switzerland, on December 18, in the evening. Each match has already been ascertained.

In addition to the matches, the draw ceremony revealed the rationale behind Real Madrid’s exclusion from facing PSV, despite the teams not being in the same group or country. Let’s utilize Sporting News to determine the cause.

Why is Real Madrid unable to face PSV?

This is not an oversight, as the UEFA announcement explicitly stated that PSV could only face Dortmund, Manchester City, or Bayern Munich, omitting the mention of Real Madrid. This causes many Los Blancos supporters to be perplexed.

Following UEFA regulations, a round of 16 matches cannot involve teams from the same group or country. In contrast, Real Madrid, representing Spain, emerged victorious in Group C, whereas PSV, standing second in Group B, originates from the Netherlands. It would not have been an issue if the two teams had met in the round of 16. However, as a result of the draw’s regulations and criteria, this match is not possible.

A mere four undetermined matches were remaining at that moment. Bayern Munich retains the ability to face RB Leipzig (from the same country) or Copenhagen (from the same group). Additionally, Manchester City may rematch Leipzig (same group). The occurrence of the match between PSV and Real Madrid would result in one of the aforementioned outcomes, which would be contrary to the draw regulations of the tournament. In that case, UEFA might be cоmpelled to nullify all prior outcomes and revert to a draw from the outset. 

UEFA’s best course of action at the time was to remove Real Madrid from PSV’s list of opponents, as this is an extremely uncommon occurrence. As a consequence, PSV was matched against Dortmund, the team atop Group F. Real Madrid encountered RB Leipzig, which was positioned second in Group G.