Monday, 3 November 2025

Champions League 2025/26 - Referee Appointments - Matchday 4 (II)

Second set of referees' assignments for MD4, games to be played on 5 November 2025. 



5 November 2025

18:45 CET - Baku (Tofiq Bəhramov adına Respublika Stadionu)
QARABAĞ FK (AZE) - CHELSEA FC (ENG)
Referee: Sebastian Gishamer AUT
Assistant Referee 1: Roland Riedel AUT
Assistant Referee 2: Santino Schreiner AUT
Fourth Official: Walter Altmann AUT
Video Assistant Referee: Manuel Schuettengruber AUT
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Josef Spurny AUT
UEFA Referee Observer: Stefan Johannesson SWE
UEFA Delegate: Adrian Ixari MDA

18:45 CET - Limassol (Alphamega Stadium)
PAFOS FC (CYP) - VILLARREAL CF (ESP)
Referee: Sven Jablonski GER
Assistant Referee 1: Eduard Beitinger GER
Assistant Referee 2: Lasse Koslowski GER
Fourth Official: Tobias Reichel GER
Video Assistant Referee: Sören Storks GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Johann Pfeifer GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Tomasz Mikulski POL
UEFA Delegate: Andrey Medintsev BUL

21:00 CET - Manchester (Etihad Stadium)
MANCHESTER CITY FC (ENG) - BORUSSIA DORTMUND (GER)
Referee: Szymon Marciniak POL 
Assistant Referee 1: Tomasz Listkiewicz POL
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Kupsik POL
Fourth Official: Paweł Raczkowski POL
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Piotr Lasyk POL
UEFA Referee Observer: Thomas Einwaller AUT 
UEFA Delegate: Radenko Mijatović SVN

21:00 CET - Milan (Stadio Giuseppe Meazza) 
FC INTERNAZIONALE MILANO (ITA) - QAİRAT FK (KAZ)
Referee: Luis Godinho POR
Assistant Referee 1: Rui Teixeira POR
Assistant Referee 2: Pedro Almeida POR
Fourth Official: António Nobre POR
Video Assistant Referee: André Narciso POR
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Tiago Martins POR
UEFA Referee Observer: Alberto Undiano Mallenco ESP 
UEFA Delegate: Raili Ellermaa EST

21:00 CET - Lisbon (Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica)
SL BENFICA (POR) - BAYER 04 LEVERKUSEN (GER)
Referee: Simone Sozza ITA
Assistant Referee 1: Filippo Meli ITA 
Assistant Referee 2: Alessio Berti ITA
Fourth Official: Davide Massa ITA 
Video Assistant Referee: Aleandro Di Paolo ITA 
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Marco Di Bello ITA
UEFA Referee Observer: Björn Kuipers NED
UEFA Delegate: René Siegrist SUI

21:00 CET - Bruges (Jan Breydelstadion)
CLUB BRUGGE KV (BEL) - FC BARCELONA (ESP)
Referee: Anthony Taylor ENG
Assistant Referee 1: Gary Beswick ENG
Assistant Referee 2: Adam Nunn ENG 
Fourth Official: Christopher Kavanagh ENG
Video Assistant Referee: Stuart Attwell ENG
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Andrew Dallas SCO 
UEFA Referee Observer: Ante Vučemilović CRO
UEFA Delegate: Peter Oskam NED 

21:00 CET - Amsterdam (Johan Cruijff ArenA)
AFX AJAX (NED) - GALATASARAY (TUR)
Referee: Benoît Bastien FRA
Assistant Referee 1: Hicham Zakrani FRA 
Assistant Referee 2: Aurélien Berthomieu FRA
Fourth Official: Thomas Leonard FRA
Video Assistant Referee: Willy Delajod FRA
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Bram Van Driessche BEL
UEFA Referee Observer: Vladimir Petrov UKR
UEFA Delegate: Paul Lyon GIB 

21:00 CET - Marseille (Vélodrome) 
OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE (FRA) - ATALANTA BC (ITA)
Referee: José María Sánchez ESP
Assistant Referee 1: Raúl Cabañero ESP
Assistant Referee 2: Iñigo Prieto ESP
Fourth Official: César Soto Grado ESP
Video Assistant Referee: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández ESP
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Pol van Boekel NED
UEFA Referee Observer: Mehmet Murat Ilgaz TUR 
UEFA Delegate: Mark Blackbourne ENG

21:00 CET - Newcastle (St James' Park)
NEWCASTLE UNITED FC (ENG) - ATHLETIC CLUB (ESP)
Referee: Ivan Kružliak SVK
Assistant Referee 1: Branislav Hancko SVK
Assistant Referee 2: Jan Pozor SVK
Fourth Official: Peter Kralović SVK
Video Assistant Referee: Fedayi San SUI
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Bastian Dankert GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Vítor Melo Pereira POR
UEFA Delegate: Christian Kofoed DEN

29 comments:

  1. Debut for Sozza, normal appointments for Marciniak, Kruzliak, Taylor and Sanchez Martinez

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    Replies
    1. Debut for Gishamer and Jablonski as well

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    2. Not for sozza. he refereed the
      Brugge-Monaco game

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    3. Sozza already made his debut in Club Brugge - AS Monaco, 18 September. This is a second game (with committee member). Observed for a promotion, I think, would be the fourth Italian Elite..

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  2. I think now that our portuguese fan is happy now because are 2 portuguese referee, Pinheiro and Godinho.

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    Replies
    1. I fear that he will not be entirely satisfied, as they continue not to officiate games involving Spanish participation.

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    2. This was a question I asked yesterday and no one has answered yet.

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    3. This is probably because UEFA does not disclose its assignment policy, and therefore we can only speculate. From my point of view, however, it also makes more sense—purely from a geographical perspective—to assign a Portuguese referee, for example, to a match like Italy vs. Germany rather than Spain vs. England. Especially in the League Phase, where there is still more flexibility.

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    4. Previous is was normal to see Portuguese referee a match for Spanish also Spanish so I don't the reason I remember for euro final between spain vs italy also alot of matches champions the it's not clear

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    5. In my perception, it was also not very common in the past to see Portuguese referees in Spain matches. For example, if I take Vitor Manuel Melo Pereira: He had three matches involving Spanish teams out of 47 club games - of which two were Spanish derbies. The only non-Spain - Spain encounter was Lazio - Real in 2001. A final match is always to be considered differently because there is limited flexibility. As far as I remember, Pedro Proenca's appointment was also a lucky coincidence, as other candidates were no longer available due to the presence of their own national teams. But it is true that Pedro Proenca already officiated Spain - Repubic of Ireland in the group stage as his first assignment; a match I would not have predicted, as I assumed that UEFA also considers geographical factors as long as there is still some leeway.

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    6. I don't think it is geographical factor also don't forget artur soares have 15 matches approximately or above for spanish he was regulary officiating spanish team

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    7. Soares Dias is more than 20 years younger than Melo Pereira. In the meantime, the referees' commission has changed several times, along with its strategies: Collina and Rosetti are also significantly different. During Melo Pereira's time, appointments for Spain games (as long as it wasn't a derby) were highly unusual. Proenca then officiated "massive" numbers of Spain games, evenly distributed including home matches. Currently, the philosophy seems similar to Melo Pereira's era. His appointment for the 2001 Super Cup between FC Liverpool and Bayern München was easy to predict, because unlike the Champions League and UEFA Cup, no Spanish team was involved—thus a suitable opportunity for him. UEFA will not disclose, publicly or incognito (I assume there are enough members reading here), which philosophy they are currently following.

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  3. Replies
    1. Maybe in Europa League tomorrow? But I think he would have got Champions League, we will see which game.

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  4. Is there who knows why spanish referee does officiate Portuguese club, also Portuguese referees does not officiate spanish since last season ??

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  5. good question..
    UEFA appointed Vincic who is a friend of Fenerbahce's vice president Acun ılıcalı ,for the game between Benfica-Fenerbahce in CL playoff. They saw no problem there. And Gözübüyük with Turkish origin was appointed 3 weeks ago for the Azerbaijani team Qarabağ.

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    Replies
    1. Correct I don't what is the new reason that it is forbidden Portuguese to officiate match for Spanish also spanish forbidden

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  6. Debuts for Jablonski, Gishamer and Godinho.
    Second game for Sozza now with a committee member.
    Not much to say about the rest: regular assignments for Marciniak, Taylor (he meets again a Spanish team), Bastien, Kružliak and Sánchez Martínez (back from injury).

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    1. Marciniak is a bit surprising, because the observer was already appointed before his MD3 game IIRC. He and Siebert are the only two referees with CL on MD3 and 4.
      Bastien has missed the first three matchdays in all three competitions, so I didn't expect him straight back to CL.
      Sanchez' injury apparently was short enough for an immediate return to CL.

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    2. I find Marciniak remarkable above all because he only officiated Dortmund on the second matchday. It is not new that UEFA sometimes assigns referees to the same team twice in the league phase. However, whether this has to happen as early as the fourth matchday with only a single other referee in between is another question. Perhaps Marciniak was a standby referee and there were reassignments, for example, due to the turmoil in Turkey.

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  7. Sozza with Mourinho and teams that can play dirty and be physical.

    With his lenient style,could be fun watch.

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    Replies
    1. He criticized Sozza last year after the game beetween Fenerbahce-Lyon.
      https://youtu.be/XzTr5Tcs3_M?si=WVnSATJjgXqilZ49

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    2. Sozza has been pretty in form in Serie A, I hope he can continue, now seems to be one of the best serie A referees in recent form

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  8. I'm curious for Scottish and Albanian referee treatment or maybe for some other FA too. When we look names like Kabakov, Treimanis, Aghayev, even Kehlet. IINM we have already seen their names many times either in UEL, UECL, or WC qualifiers this year, but where is Walsh, Beaton, Xhaja, Jorgji. Is names like them inferior than names like Treimanis and Aghayev? Even Chefren mentioned he didn't know what's committee think for Aghayev, maybe just maybe we must have new category again after Elite Referee like 13 years ago (iinm Elite Development Group again). Either we like it or not, Treimanis, Kabakov, Aghayev it's like always get the match and their reputation was solid enough as Category 1 with quite young age, under 40. Jug, Obrenovic with their passport advantage and Croatian just started again with Pajac, but even for Pajac I didn't see his name many times like Treimanis and the others I had mentioned. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

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    Replies
    1. Perhaps they didn't pass the fitness or video tests?

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    2. But Pajac got his debut and still he didn't lead many match as Treimanis, etc. Also I found out Balázs Berke from Hungary that promoted to Category 1 with very limited games iinm. What do you think?

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  9. Good appointment for Sozza, in a rather open game.
    Also expected great appointment for Marciniak, who gets a big game again.
    And again this time, it's Sanchez Martinez, who is appointed as a spanish in a rather not easy game, and opens again the debate on who is number 1 in Spain. The battle seems to be between him and Manzano and for now, it's rather difficult to see who is better.

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