As previously reported, UEFA has named the refereeing team for the Euro 2024 qualifying match between Ukraine and Italy, which will be held next Monday, 20 November in Leverkusen. All referees represent Spain, and the head referee of the meeting will be Jesus Gil Manzano.
Jesus Gil ManzanoManzano, 39, has been officiating matches in Spain's elite division since 2012, and he became a FIFA referee in 2014.
Manzano will not be the first time to serve a match involving the national team of Ukraine. In October 2021, the Spaniard worked as the chief referee at the match of the qualifying cycle of the World Cup-2022 Finland - Ukraine (1:2), in which he showed only one yellow card.
Manzano is familiar with Ukrainian football and at the club level. The Spaniard worked at the following European Cup matches of Ukraine's representatives:
- 2014/15 season, Europa League qualification, Chornomorets vs Split (Croatia) - 0:0;
- 2017/18, Europa League, play-offs, Dynamo vs Lazio (Italy) - 0:2;
- season-2022/23, Europa League, play-offs, Feyenoord (Netherlands) vs Shakhtar 7:1;
- season-2023/24, Europa League, qualification, Dnipro 1 - Slavia ( Czech Republic) - 1:1.
Finally, in 2014, Manzano worked twice at matches of the Ukraine U-19 national youth team in the qualification of the European Championship (U-19): Ukraine - England - 1:0, Ukraine - Scotland - 0:0.
The last time Manzano was appointed by UEFA in September, for the match of the group stage of the current Champions League between French PSG and Borussia Dortmund (3 yellow cards, 0 penalties, 1 penalty).
In total, Manzano has 86 international matches under his belt, including 12 - within the qualifying cycles of the World and European Championships and the final stages of these tournaments.
We would like to add that the head referee of the Ukraine vs Italy match is a rather strict referee: he shows an average of five yellow cards per game, and removes players - in every third match under his arbitration.
