FC Barcelona will face Paris Saint-Germain this Wednesday, October 1st, at Montjuïc (9:00 PM CEST) with Michael Oliver as the referee. UEFA has appointed the English referee for the match corresponding to matchday 2 of the league phase of the UEFA Champions League 2025/26, which will be the 40-year-old referee's second appearance in this edition of the tournament.
The Ashington native was also the main referee in the match between Ajax and Inter Milan (0-2), where the 'Nerazzurri' team won with a double by Marcus Thuram. For the Barça-PSG match, Oliver will be accompanied by Austrian Jarred Gillett from the VOR room.
The referee who put Real Madrid in the 'semis' of the Champions League in 2018 returns to referee Barça
In the Champions League, Michael Oliver is remembered as a 'friend' of Real Madrid, a club he has refereed on three occasions. The most famous one was the second leg of the quarter-finals of the 2017/18 Champions League, against Juventus (1-3), where the English referee 'saved' the Whites with an invented penalty by Mehdi Benatia on Lucas Vázquez in the 90+1 minute.
Madrid had the tie in their pocket after thrashing Turin (0-3), but Juve equalized the aggregate score at the Bernabéu with a double by Mario Mandzukic and another goal by Blaise Matuidi. The match was about to go to extra time, with Real on the verge of a KO, until Oliver appeared in added time to award a penalty for a slight push by Benatia on Lucas.
That was the last Champions League season without VAR and, therefore, there was no review of the action. Cristiano Ronaldo was in charge of taking the penalty, scoring the goal that qualified Real Madrid for the semi-finals (4-3 on aggregate). The current Barça goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczesny, had to come on to try to stop the penalty, after Buffon was sent off (for protesting).
Subsequently, Zinedine Zidane's Madrid dispatched Atlético de Madrid in the 'semis' (4-2 on aggregate) and would lift their third Champions League in a row after defeating Liverpool in Kiev (3-1), in another final marred by Sergio Ramos' controversial foul on Mohamed Salah that injured the Egyptian and spared the Spanish center-back a clear sending-off.
How Barcelona has fared with Michael Oliver in the Champions League
For Barcelona, Wednesday will be the fifth time they have played a Champions League match refereed by Michael Oliver. The balance so far is even for the 'culés', with one win, a couple of draws and one defeat.
The last time the Englishman refereed a Champions League match for Barça was on the last matchday of the 24/25 league stage, against Atalanta (2-2). The match, played in Montjuïc, ended in a draw with goals from Lamine Yamal and Ronald Araujo for the 'culés'. Éderson and Pasalic scored for the Italians, in a match that Hansi Flick's team arrived at with their place in the round of 16 secured.
Previously, Oliver refereed the 'azulgrana' team in the 19/20, 20/21 and 21/22 editions, the first against Slavia Prague (0-0) and the other two against Dinamo Kiev (2-1) and Bayern Munich (0-3), all three at the Spotify Camp Nou.
- January 29, 2025: FC Barcelona 2-2 Atalanta, matchday 8 of the 2024/25 Champions League.
- September 14, 2021: FC Barcelona 0-3 Bayern Munich, matchday 1 of the 2021/22 Champions League.
- November 4, 2020: FC Barcelona 2-1 Dinamo Kiev, matchday 3 of the 2020/21 Champions League.
- November 5, 2019: FC Barcelona 0-0 Slavia Prague, matchday 3 of the 2019/20 Champions League.
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