UEFA has confirmed the appointment of match official for the Champions League fixture between Liverpool and Villarreal on Tuesday night.
The Reds will play host to the LaLiga side at Anfield tomorrow, with the visitors’ president Fernando Roig describing it as an ‘emotional‘ occasion for his club, who last played in L4 in the semi-finals of the competition in the spring of 2022.
While Inigo Perez’s side have a win and a defeat in the tournament so far this season, the hosts will be aiming to extend their 100% record after victories over Atletico Madrid and LASK.
Referee confirmed for Liverpool v Villarreal
On Monday morning, Liverpool’s official website shared the news that Szymon Marciniak will be the referee for the fixture at Anfield, with the Polish official assisted on the touchlines by compatriots Tomasz Listkiewicz and Adam Kupsik.
Wojciech Myc has been appointed as fourth official, with Piotr Lasyk on VAR and assisted by Benjamin Brand from Germany.
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A good omen for Liverpool?
This will be Marciniak’s eighth time taking charge of a Liverpool game, with the Reds winning five of the previous seven. In a good omen for Tuesday, the most recent of those was the aforementioned 2-0 win over Villarreal at Anfield four-and-a-half years ago (Transfermarkt).
However, on both occasions that the 45-year-old has refereed a match in which LFC lost, he ended up incurring the wrath of Kopites.
When we lost 2-1 away to Paris Saint-Germain in November 2018, he somehow failed to send off Marco Verratti for a high, studs-showing challenge on Joe Gomez, while he was all too obliging towards Atletico’s gamesmanship in our 1-0 defeat at the Metropolitano in February 2020.
We hope that Marciniak – one of the most experienced referees on the UEFA circuit – will be more attuned to any such nonsense at Anfield tomorrow night; certainly more so than Davide Massa had been when Atletico visited L4 in our first Champions League outing this season.
A repeat of the 2-0 scoreline from his previous Liverpool v Villarreal assignment would do quite nicely!