THE UEFA announced, in the form of a statement issued through official platforms early this Monday morning, that Nicholas Walsh is the man chosen to referee the match on the third round of the Champions League league stage, which will pit Sporting and LASK Linz face to face.
The field team will be 100% Scottish, made up of assistants Francis Coonor and Daniel McFarlane, and fourth official Donald Robertson. The VAR will be the Englishman Stuart Attwell, and the AVAR will be the Polish Piotr Lasyk, in a match that has the starting whistle scheduled for 8pm (Mainland Portugal time) on Wednesday, at the José Alvalade Stadium.
At 35 years of age, the Brit will referee for only the second time in his career a game involving the blue and white emblem. The first took place less than a year ago (more specifically, on December 9, 2025), and was also about the million-dollar event, culminating in a 3-1 defeat against Bayern Munich, at the Allianz Arena.
On his resume, Nicholas Walsh also has two games for Sporting de Braga (two defeats), two for the under-21 national team (two wins), two for the under-17 team (one win and one draw) and also one for Vitória SC (triumph). Last Saturday, he was in charge of refereeing Falkirk’s 1-2 victory over Hibernian, at Easter Road, in the Scottish championship.
Sporting’s results (and accounts)
Sporting, remember, had an ‘immaculate’ entry into the new 2026/27 Champions League sporting season, which resulted in victories over Galatasaray (at the José Alvalade Stadium, 3-1) and Lens (at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis, 0-2), and the respective achievement of six points for the ‘baggage’.
This means that the Lions are part of the leaders of what is the biggest European club competition, along with Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, ​​Aston Villa, Stuttgart, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Real Betis, and keep the ‘dream’ of qualifying for the next stage alive, whether directly or through the playoff.
LASK Linz’s scenario is much less encouraging, as they lost against AEK (at the Allwyn Arena, 1-0) and Liverpool (at the Linzer Stadion, 3-6), so they remain at ‘zero’, just like Internazionale, FC Porto, Slavia Praga, Napoli, Lille, Galatasaray and Slovan Bratislava, and are forced to ‘push the pedal’ to avoid elimination.
What’s next in the Champions League?
Sporting’s Champions League calendar also includes games with Shakhtar Donetsk (on November 3, at Stamford Bridge), Manchester United (on November 25, at the José Alvalade Stadium), AS Roma (on December 8, at the Olympic Stadium in Rome), Barcelona (on January 20, 2027, at the José Alvalade Stadium) and, finally, Manchester City (on January 27, at the Etihad Stadium).
LASK Linz, for its part, will face Slovan Bratislava (on November 3, at the Linzer Stadion), Bodo/Glimt (on November 24, at the Aspmyra Stadion), Fenerbahçe (on December 9, at the Linzer Stadion), Real Madrid (on January 19, 2027, at the Santiago Bernabéu) and, finally, FC Porto (on January 27, at the Linzer Stadion.
