Portuguese referee Artur Soares Dias has been assigned to Napoli’s Champions League Round of 16 tie against Eintracht Frankfurt.

It kicks off at the Frankfurt Stadion on Tuesday at 20.00 GMT.

UEFA have announced that the officiating team is Portuguese for this first leg encounter.

Artur Soares Dias takes the whistle, with assistants Paulo Soares, Pedro Ribeiro and fourth official Fabio Verissimo.

The VAR booth is also Portuguese, as Tiago Martins is assisted by Joao Pinheiro.

Dias is a 43-year-old referee who has already officiated two Champions League group games this season, Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Ajax and the 0-0 draw between FC Copenhagen and Manchester City, which saw Sergio Gomez sent off after just 30 minutes.

He only had one Napoli game in his career, a 3-1 Europa League home defeat to RB Leipzig in February 2018.

His record with Italian teams at club and international level is of 12 wins, four draws and five defeats.

This referee’s only match with Eintracht Frankfurt was an historic 3-2 Europa League quarter-final victory away to Barcelona in April 2022.

That was achieved despite Evan Ndicka getting sent off for a second yellow card deep into stoppages.

His tally with German teams is five wins, three draws and eight losses.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector