2025/26 UEFA Europa Conference League, referee appointments for Semifinals (First Legs).
21:00 CET - Madrid (Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas)
RAYO VALLECANO DE MADRID (ESP) - RC STRASBOURG ALSACE (FRA) Referee: Donatas Rumšas LTU
Assistant Referee 1: Aleksandr Radiuš LTU
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis LTU
Fourth Official: Irfan Peljto BIH
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis LTU
Fourth Official: Irfan Peljto BIH
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Ivan Bebek CRO
UEFA Referee Observer: Lucilio Batista PORUEFA Delegate: Neil Morrow NIR
21:00 CET - Krakow, POL (Stadion Miejski im. Henryka Reymana)
SHAKHTAR DONETSK (UKR) - CRYSTAL PALACE FC (ENG)
Referee: Felix Zwayer GER
Assistant Referee 2: Christian Dietz GER
Fourth Official: Sven Jablonski GER
Video Assistant Referee: Bastian Dankert GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Sören Storks GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Tomasz Mikulski POL
UEFA Delegate: Per Svärd SWE
21:00 CET - Madrid (Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas)
ReplyDeleteRAYO VALLECANO DE MADRID (ESP) - RC STRASBOURG ALSACE (FRA)
Referee: Donatas Rumšas LTU
Assistant Referee 1: Aleksandr Radiuš LTU
Assistant Referee 2: Dovydas Sužiedėlis LTU
Fourth Official: Irfan Peljto BIH
Video Assistant Referee: Tomasz Kwiatkowski POL
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Ivan Bebek CRO
UEFA Referee Observer: Lucilio Batista POR
UEFA Delegate: Neil Morrow NIR
21:00 CET - Krakow, POL (Stadion Miejski im. Henryka Reymana)
SHAKHTAR DONETSK (UKR) - CRYSTAL PALACE FC (ENG)
Referee: Felix Zwayer GER
Assistant Referee 1: Robert Kempter GER
Assistant Referee 2: Christian Dietz GER
Fourth Official: Sven Jablonski GER
Video Assistant Referee: Bastian Dankert GER
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Sören Storks GER
UEFA Referee Observer: Tomasz Mikulski POL
UEFA Delegate: Per Svärd SWE
UEFA are embarrassing Peljto, a shocking appointment.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. They appointed him FO to a more inexperienced and worse referee.
DeleteThis is crazy. This is genuinely crazy. Why is UEFA doing this to Irfan Peljto? It’s come to the point that, after being assigned MLT–LUX and then dropped from the World Cup referee list, he is now a FOURTH OFFICIAL to Donatas Rumsas??? This is shocking and devastating, because he absolutely did not deserve this kind of treatment!
ReplyDeleteAgree UEFA full of politics which is rubbish and bogus by now. Hope next year be more kind to Peljto
DeleteThis is a really big surprise for me to see Rumsas.. terrible for Peljto I must say
ReplyDeleteIt‘s a very bad sign for Zwayer that UEFA appoints him only for a Conference league first leg SF although second leg is possible because no German teams in the competition. This appointment is a symbol for a disastrous saison for him.
ReplyDeleteWe must remind: Last year, he officiated Champions League SF second leg.
We can ask therefore, 'why did UEFA give Zwayer the easiest possible semifinal?'. Strasbourg-Rayo's second leg will probably be a very passionate and quite difficult game; taking all things into consideration, I think Zwayer would have been an excellent choice for this match.
DeletePlease, Peljto FO for Rumsas is a disgrace. Rosetti should be ashamed. That's not acceptable.
ReplyDeleteVery harsh treatment for Peljto indeed, generally I don't comment in this way and I think all assignments are good things for referees, but Peljto, given his path, can't be at this point fourth official to Rumsas.
ReplyDeleteWhile, excellent path for the Lithuanian, that's sure.
On the other game, committee very consistent with Zwaer treatment, at least one can't discuss about that: nevertheless, was Peljto even worse than the Germany, not deserving another assignment as main referee at this point?
Good 1half by Zwayer in a normal difficulty match, optimal approach to disciplinary matters (3 YCs shown). He was correct not to award Shakhtar a penalty at 12', no handball offence had been committed, and the German ref dealt with the protests well.
ReplyDeleteNice that we're watching the same game :)
DeleteGood performance from Felix Zwayer in the first half. Two mandatory cautions to Shakhtar players: blatant holding in 30' and reckless tackle in 38' and then a balancing yellow card to 10CRY in 44' (very late tripping but neither a real SPA nor reckless). Correctly rejected Shakhtar's penalty appeals in 11' - never a handball.
ReplyDeleteAnd 2nd half as well :)
DeleteAgree, good performance from my pov in the 2half too.
DeletePotential 2nd YC missed by Rumsas.
ReplyDeleteClear 2nd YC missed by Rumsas nearly SFP also
ReplyDeleteRayo's games are very challenging,as well as Strasbourg who is very phisycal team.
ReplyDeleteSomeone like Siebert is needed in game 2,probably 15 cards🤣
Yes, some trouble for Rumsas to keep things under control there.
DeleteThe minutes 77-83 would be worth a longer highlight clip with several situations to deal with for Rumsas and Kwiatkowski in a short time period.
SHAKHTAR DONETSK - CRYSTAL PALACE
ReplyDeleteKMIs
12' https://streamff.link/v/bd36240c
64' https://streamff.link/v/f8e78be2
72' https://streamff.link/v/f6e88ae2
Correctly rejected penalty appeals in 12' and 64' and tricky handball in 72' but rather expected call was made by Zwayer
Surprisingly, the German chose a strict disciplinary approach that resulted in quite harsh cards in 44', 52' and 56'. In 77', the reaction on head injury was too late by current standards. Overall, it was a good performance in a normal-difficulty game.
OK 12' and 64', very clear gestures by German referee.
DeleteDidn't watch the full game, but the body language in this case helps me to understand the rest, with the strict disciplinary approach you described.
72' can be discussed: I think the defender would never like to commit the acttion, after a missed attempt to play ball.
It's OK to stay silent by VAR, but there can be small grey areas about a possible intervention (nevertheless, for me this would be a rather sophisticated decision).
Rayo Vallecano - Strasbourg
ReplyDelete76' YC for off-the-ball holding
https://streambug.org/cv/d5a4ee
77' potential penalty - kick in the head - but VAR supports after long check
https://streambug.org/cv/7a4e30
82' foul on GK (interfering) vs. possible penalty for GK stepping on opponent's heel/ankle
https://streambug.org/cv/82ad24
what minute was the missed 2YC?
The potential SYC was in 52', right before Rayo-'s goal. There was a potential RC for VC as well in 1H (38') where YC was shown and VAR stayed silent.
DeleteFor what it's worth, I think Rumsas deserves respect for holding his nerve in what was a very challenging game: lots of antics, (off-the-ball) contacts, etc. Whoever gets the return leg will be given a hot potato.
Very easy to detect the nature of the game, just watching these three clips, especially last one!
DeleteExtremely challenging for the Lithuanian.
Management in 82' is best solution, very stupid behavior by players, more interesting in 77', I think after long analysis VAR couldn't 100% demonstrate the contact, so they didn't intervene for the lack of evidence, something that is very often repeated by Rosetti. For me, that's at least a clear indirect free kick (once you can't say it was contact), for the raised leg, but incredible once again to observe how this infringment has disappeared from modern football (it's a rule that can give you troubles in applying it with difficult free kicks inside the box to be managed, but still...).
76' very good eye for an off the ball incident.
37' YC for UB after advice from AR1/4OF/VAR, strike in the face - too negligible force?
Deletehttps://streamff.link/v/09664e2c
52' possible 2YC for reckless tackle
https://streamff.link/v/eb43bac2
37' the management by referee is good, by book you can go with red card, no doubts, but I think one can accept YC here given the force that player used.
Delete52' I would have liked to see a YC here, but I can't consider this one as 100% clear mistake
Very challenging game for the Lithuanian, absolutely!
I watched the game this morning! The refereeing in this game was very good until 77', after which Rumsas was overcome a bit. The penalty not given at 77' is, surely, a very big mistake by Kwiatkowski? You can understand the logic he was using (the same as Frojdfeldt in TurCze 2008; the kick in Geneve was lot heavier!), but I cannot see any real justification for the Polish VMO to give this incident the all clear? One can reflect of Kwiatkowski, after Eskas in the Club WC and Pinheiro/here this KO stage, that he surely works best as VAR when he is working in a friendly way with his compatriot, Marciniak. On Rumsas: I think he justified the (surprising) appointment; Euro 2028 can be a real and genuine goal for the Lithuanian crew. In this match, his method of communicating with the players was really excellent and won him lots of respect/understanding with them. I think it is more than okay to deem the 52' foul as careless, personally. The big point for improvement, and I hope that Batista pointed this out to me, is reading when as a referee you must change your role on the FoP from 'mediator' to 'dictator' - this is what Rumsas should have done in this match, starting with the incident where Lejeurne was rightly booked. He lost the thread a bit after the 77' penalty appeal (Peljto had to tell him about the blatant foul/YC at 78', he panickly ignored the aggressive behaviour by Stra no10 at 81' which led to the comic penalty appeal; got in the way at 86', missed holding incident in 90'), but nothing too bad happened truthfully. Clearly, the appointment in this game accepted that Rumsas was/is not 'the finished article' and overall the game was a success from my pov. Finally, a word for Peljto: whatever the opposite of being 'in a sulk' is, that is how the Bosnian behaved as fourth official last night. He could not possibly have been more focused/motivated/helpful towards his younger colleague, and I must say that on a human level, this really struck a chord. If anything, Peljto was slightly too helpful, as he through the push-to-talk button informed Rumsas to award a couple of unnecessary fouls in his vicinity during the second half. The way he immediately ran towards Stra no10 after the halftime whistle is one for the chapeau category!
DeleteIn terms of big incidents I would add:
Delete86' - potential penalty for handball?
88' - potential SYC to Stra no3
+96' - potential SYC to Rayo no12