Romanian Ovidiu Alin Hategan is in charge of FC Bayern’s Champions League match against Benfica Lisbon on Wednesday. The announcement was made by UEFA on Monday evening.
The 41-year-old has already been at a Munich match in the top flight three times – and three times there were clear victories. In December 2012, Bayern celebrated a 6:1 victory against Lille, in February 2018 there was a 5:0 against Besiktas. And on the way to winning the Champions League in 2020, the Romanian refereed the Munich team’s round of 16 second leg against Chelsea FC, which Bayern won 4-1. At the time, the referee received a kicker rating of 2.
Tenth anniversary in the top flight
In the season so far, the 41-year-old referee has refereed three World Cup qualifiers, one CL match (Atletico vs. Porto), two qualifiers in the top flight and the Europa League, in addition to five appearances in the domestic league. He also refereed one match in the Saudi professional league. Hategan celebrated his debut on the international stage in the 2011/12 season – exactly ten years ago.
In addition to FC Bayern, he also refereed Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League draw with FC Barcelona (2019/20) and FC Schalke’s 3-1 defeat in Porto (2018/19).
Frankfurt’s dramatic semi-final at Chelsea
He was also involved with Eintracht Frankfurt twice in the Europa League in 2018/19 – once in the Hessians’ 0-1 defeat at Inter Milan and in the dramatic semi-final at Chelsea FC, which the SGE lost on penalties.
