THE UEFA announced, in the form of a statement issued through official platforms early this Tuesday morning, that Martin Matosa is the man chosen to referee the match on the fourth round of the Europa League league phase, which will pit Benfica and Lech Poznan face to face, at the Estádio da Luz.
The Ljubljana-born judge will lead an almost exclusively Slovenian team, made up of assistants Matej Zunic and Aleksandar Kasapovic, fourth official David Smajc and VAR Alen Borosak. The only exception will be the Dutch Jeroen Manschot, who will play the role of AVAR, in the game scheduled for 8pm (Mainland Portugal time) on Thursday.
At 31 years of age, Martin Matosa will join a Portuguese team for the first time in his career, at senior level. This is after, in the 2024/25 UEFA Youth League sports season, he was present in the goalless draw between the under-19 teams of Sporting de Braga and Rapid Viena, in Minho.
Benfica, remember, arrives at this game at the top of the table, with nine points, as many as Bayer Leverkusen, Bournemouth, Ferencváros and Olympiacos. Lech Poznan, on the other hand, lives in 32nd place, with just one point, equal with NK Celje, Hapoel Beer Sheva and Lillestrom.
‘Unknown’ also at Torreense-Ararat Armenia
The body that governs European football also made it known that the referee for the duel between Torreense and Ararat-Armenia (which will be played at precisely the same time, at the Dr. Magalhães Pessoa Stadium, in Leiria) will be Milos Milanovic, another ‘rookie’ when it comes to Portuguese emblems, at this level.
In this case, the set of judges determined for this Portuguese-Armenian duel will be of a single nationality, more specifically, Serbian, as the assistants will be Milan Pasajlic and Svetozar Zivin, the fourth referee Pavle Ilic, the VAR Aleksandar Zivkovic and the AVAR Pavle Tomic.
The only two experiences that Milos Milanovic has with Portuguese teams is a game for Sporting de Braga’s under-19s (defeat against AC Milan, for the UEFA Youth League, in February 2024) and another for the national under-21 team (draw with Iceland, in March 2022, in the qualifying phase for the European Championship).
Torreense currently occupies 28th place in the table, with the same three points as Anderlecht, Hoffenheim, AC Milan, OFI Creta, Celta de Vigo and Jagiellonia Bialystok. Ararat-Armenia, in turn, is part, along with Marseille and Celtic, of the restricted group of teams that continue to count at ‘zero’.
And at Aarhus-Sporting de Braga?
Also on Thursday, but at 5:45 pm, Sporting de Braga will travel to Randers Stadion, in Denmark, to face Aarhus, in this case, as part of the third round of the league phase of the Europa Conference League, in a duel that will have the German Florian Bastubner as the main referee.
Sven Waschitzki and Philipp Huwe will be the assistants, Robin Braun the fourth referee, Christian-Petru Ciochirca (the only ‘intruder’, as he has an Austrian passport) the VAR and Katrin Rafalski the AVAR. The Portuguese are 16th, with three points (equal with Ajax, Borac, Atalanta, Gent and Freiburg), and the Scandinavians are 26th, with one (like Red Star, CSKA Sofia, Jablonec, Midtjylland, Pafos, Iberia 1999, Hearts, Getafe and Kairat Almaty).
Interestingly, of the three, he is the only one who knows what it is like to officiate Portuguese teams at the highest level, as, last July, he refereed the second leg of the second qualifying round of the Europa League, which culminated in a 5-0 victory for Benfica against St. Gallen, at Estádio da Luz.
