Atletico madrid and Manchester United now know who will be in charge for their first leg clash. He comes in the form of Ovidiu Hategan, who will have compatriots Mircea Mihail Grigoriu and Sebastian Gheorghe by his side.
The Romanian, Ovidiu Hategan, has been appointed to the match between Atletico Madrid and Manchester United this Wednesday in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Hategan will be supported on the sidelines by his compatriots Mircea Mihail Grigoriu and Sebastian Gheorghe, and Radu Petrescu as the fourth official. Two Italians will make up the VAR team. Massimiliano Irrati and Maurizio Mariani.
The 41 year old Romanian referee, appointed to international games in 2008, has expertly officiated a number of matches for both teams in the past.
The matches he has officiated for Atletico Madrid are as follows: A win away at Rubin Kazan in February 2013 in the Europa League (0-1), in the Champions League against Benfica in December 2015 (2-1), and a draw last September to Porto (0-0) in the Wanda Metropolitano. He was also one quarter of the team in charge of their European Super Cup win in 2018. A game in which they beat Real Madrid 4-2 after extra time.
He has refereed two games for Manchester United. A 1-2 win in Turin over Juventus in November 2018 and at Old Trafford, a 4-1 win against Istanbul Basaksehir in November 2020.
The other match on Wednesday, Benfica v Ajax, will be run by the Slovenian Slavko Vincic. His assistants will be Thomaz Klancnik and Andraz Kovacic, with the fourth official being Rade Obrenovic. The VAR team: Marco Fritz and Jure Praprotnik.