UEFA has named the refereeing team for the 5th round of the League of Nations match between the national team of Ukraine and the national team of Scotland, which will be held next Tuesday, September 27, in Krakow, Poland.
That's who judges Ukraine - Scotland. All referees represent Greece. The main arbiter of the upcoming match will be 43-year-old Thassos Sidiropoulos. Polychronis Kostaras and Lazaros Dimitriadis will help him on the lines. The fourth referee is Aristotle Diamantopoulos.
Sidiropoulos has been a FIFA referee since 2013. For all the time he has already worked at 91 international fights. The Greek will officiate the Nations League match for the 7th time in his career.
The last international match that Sidiropoulos worked on was the group stage meeting of the current Champions League between the Portuguese Porto and the Belgian Brugge (0:4), which took place on September 13.
Sidiropoulos is well acquainted with Ukrainian football, as he has faced it more than once at the club level. In addition, this referee once officiated a match with the participation of the Ukrainian national team, moreover, in the League of Nations. In the 2018/19 season, Sidiropoulos was the chief referee of the match between Ukraine and Slovakia (1:0). In that meeting, the Greek referee showed four yellow cards and appointed a penalty, from which Andriy Yarmolenko brought victory to the Ukrainian national team.
All in all, Sidiropoulos' track record includes as many as eight international matches with representatives of Ukraine, and five of them are fights with the participation of Shakhtar Donetsk.
Europa League 2013/14, group stage. "Dynamo" - "Genk" - 0:1
Europa League-2013/14, 1/16 finals. "Victoria" - "Miner" - 1:1
Champions League 2014/15, group stage. "Athletic" "Miner" - 0:0
Europa League-2015/6, 4th qualifier round. "Dawn" - "Legia" - 0:1
Champions League 2015/16, group stage. "Malmo" "Miner" - 1:0
Champions League 2017/18, group stage. "Miner" - Feyenoord - 3:1
League of Nations-2018/19. Ukraine - Slovakia - 1:0
Champions League 2021/22, 3rd qualifier round. "Genk" "Miner" - 1:2
As for the degree of severity of the main referee of the meeting between the national teams of Ukraine and Scotland, Sidiropoulos warns the players enough: he shows an average of 5 yellow cards per match, and is marked by dismissals in about every third match. The Greek also appoints a penalty in about every third match under his leadership.