UEFA has decided to appoint Romanian referee Istvan Kovacs to lead Bayern/PSG in Tuesday night's Champions League. A choice which recalls a very good recent memory since he was the man in black in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League between Barça and PSG last April (4-1).
PSG will play part of its European future on Tuesday evening on the lawn of the Allianz Arena in Munich and the referee appointed for this Bayern/PSG will at least remind them of an excellent memory. It is in fact the Romanian Istvan Kovacs who will lead the game as UEFA has just made it official and his last match with the Parisians was an excellent memory, the 4-1 victory in Barcelona in the quarter-final second leg of the last Champions League.
That day, the Romanian did not hesitate to send off Barcelona's Ronaldo Araujo even before the half-hour mark for his illegal tackle on Barcola, which requires a certain courage when we remember certain Barça/PSG at the very questionable arbitration. At 40, Kovacs has great European experience with around thirty Champions League matches under his belt, including several shocks this season: Real Madrid/Dortmund (5-2) and Inter/Arsenal (1-0) in particular.
But before Barça/PSG, Mr. Kovacs did not only represent good memories for PSG since it was also he who refereed Newcastle/PSG (4-1) a little over a year ago and that It is an understatement to say that he had favored the English team: a second goal awarded although at the very least tainted by doubts (hand, stroller, etc.), an attack by Bruno Guimarães on Manuel Ugarte which remained completely unpunished and overall a completely home arbitration for the Magpies. The local team is often well off with the Romanian.
On the Bayern side, we only encountered the referee twice for two victories, but they date back several years now: it was the group match in Moscow against Lokomotiv in the fall of 2020 (2-1) then the narrow victory against Lazio in the round of 16 second leg, still with a score of 2-1. That day, he awarded a penalty to the Bavarians to open the scoring and a certain Lucas Hernandez was the starting left-back on the German side.
