Monday, 23 February 2026

Champions League 2025/26 - Referee Appointments - KO Play-Offs (Second Legs, II)

2025/26 UEFA Champions League, KO Play-Offs: second legs, second set of games, 25 February 2026. 


Wednesday 25 February 2026

18:45 CET - Bergamo (New Balance Arena) 
ATALANTA BC (ITA)  - BORUSSIA DORTMUND (GER)
Referee: José María Sánchez Martínez ESP
Assistant Referee 1: Raúl Cabañero Martínez ESP
Assistant Referee 2: Íñigo Prieto López de Cerain ESP
Fourth Official: Juan Martínez Munuera ESP
Video Assistant Referee: Guillermo Cuadra Fernández ESP 
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Carlos del Cerro Grande ESP
UEFA Referee Observer: Konrad Plautz AUT
UEFA Delegate: Kurt Zuppinger SUI 

21:00 CET - Paris (Parc des Princes) 
PARIS SAINT GERMAIN (FRA) - AS MONACO (FRA)
Referee: István Kovács ROU
Assistant Referee 1: Mihai Marica ROU 
Assistant Referee 2: Ferencz Tunyogi ROU
Fourth Official: Szabolcs Kovacs ROU
Video Assistant Referee: Pol van Boekel NED 
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Marco Di Bello ITA
UEFA Referee Observer: Sokol Jareci ALB 
UEFA Delegate: Charles Schaack LUX

21:00 CET - Turin (Juventus Stadium) 
JUVENTUS (ITA) - GALATASARAY (TUR) 
Referee: João Pinheiro POR
Assistant Referee 1: Bruno Jesus POR
Assistant Referee 2: Luciano Maia POR
Fourth Official: João Gonçalves POR
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Jérôme Brisard FRA
UEFA Referee Observer: Martin Ingvarsson SWE 
UEFA Delegate:  Neil Morrow NIR

21:00 CET - Madrid (Estadio Santiago Bernabéu) 
REAL MADRID CF (ESP)  - SL BENFICA (POR)
Referee: Slavko Vinčić SVN
Assistant Referee 1: Tomaž Klančnik SVN
Assistant Referee 2:  Andraž Kovačič SVN
Fourth Official: David Šmajc SVN
Video Assistant Referee: Christian Dingert GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Daniele Chiffi ITA 
UEFA Referee Observer: Marinus Koopman NED
UEFA Delegate: Mauro Tonolini ITA 

12 comments:

  1. A few interesting decisions in the Scottish Premiership yesterday:

    Livingston v Rangers https://youtu.be/n8a3MAoEueo?si=G7lF0dOirhihVuxV

    2:20 - straight forward DOGSO red card.
    4:25 - a lot of controversy. Nothing given on field, VAR judges it to be outside the penalty area (correctly) but not DOGSO red card so ultimately it was a play on.

    There has been a number of DOGSO red cards in Scotland the last few weeks so I was surprised this wasn't.

    Celtic v Hibernian https://youtu.be/VzMwxiT7eP0?si=cSeoaF8dxuVen0mJ

    3:05 - OFR for violent conduct. Good intervention. Then immediately from the restart a penalty claim for holding (dismissed due to it being fleeting would be my guess).

    Also from Saturday.

    St Mirren v Motherwell https://youtu.be/VzMwxiT7eP0?si=cSeoaF8dxuVen0mJ

    2.15 - RC for SFP overturned after OFR.
    4.00 - RC on field for violent conduct supported by VAR.

    Finally, Aberdeen vs Dundee. https://youtu.be/YFc5S7UtI7E?si=-EGBzyVRHgJfASJF

    0.55 - penalty given on field, reviewed for inside outside. Decided it was inside but OFR for DOGSO red card as no intent to play the ball

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://youtu.be/0CVshHWeS9k?si=8G4gJh29LA-Amjv1

      Correct link to St Mirren v Motherwell

      Delete
  2. It should be Ahmed with Rosetti now.. Pinheiro got second appointments..

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  3. Pinheiro might be the only referee to officiate
    2 KO Play-Offs matches in a row

    ReplyDelete
  4. And, in the end, Pinheiro is the winner. Only referee with two games in the CL Play-offs. So very likely the switch of observers they made was also related to that, as originally there was a Portuguese observer here. One can easily guess, after first leg score and events, they changed the name. Big trust for Pinheiro, definitely loved by Rosetti, one can't exclude he will officiate a final at the end of this season, possible the Europa League, but there will be many candidates for sure.
    At the same time, one must discuss about the management by committee, surely once again we could say they could planned it better but it seems there are many factors they want to tale always into account.
    The absence of Marciniak is one of the reasons, you can see Pinheiro with the Polish VAR, it's easy to say that the Polish would have got one of these games.
    About the rest, expected choices in Bergamo, as guessed by Philipp, as well as in Paris. Kovacs very often assigned to PSG. Vincic in Madrid after the big controversy in both two recent games, MD8 and first leg of OK Play-offs.

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  5. That was my opinion that I wrote last week in the blog , the best performance showed by a referee in first legs was joao calm , firm , respect the players I am not surprising if he appointed another game in champions league or Europe league next week

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  6. Chefren, I completely agree. Pinherio definitely wasn't the right referee for the second match. When the score was 5-2, a chance arose for a developing referee like Pinherio. And it certainly seems that referee assignments have changed depending on the score in the last few days.

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  7. I think it is not about love it is the performance

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  8. Big appointment for Sanchez Martinez ... Again surprised to see two spaniards get big appointments ..

    Pinheiro present again, very surprising ..
    I think Kovacs shouldn't have been used in that match, after the first leg, could have appointed someone else ...

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  9. Seeing Dingert here means that there was most likely no touch of hand from Esposito before Inter goal from last week.

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