As already reported, the main referee of today's match of the 2nd round of the group stage of Euro 2024 in Group E between Slovakia and Ukraine will be 39-year-old Englishman Michael Oliver.
We have already cited detailed statistics of the meetings of this referee with Ukrainian teams. However, in Oliver's career there was a story worthy of a separate mention.
In the season-2017/18 the Briton refereed the first match of the 1/4 finals of the Champions League between Real Madrid and Juventus Turin (1:3). In the last minute of the second half of this meeting Oliver appointed a penalty in the gate of the Italian team. The legendary goalkeeper of Juventus Gianluigi Buffon in an aggressive form protested against this decision (on the photo), and the referee showed him a red card.
"Real" penalty realized, and then won the return match with a score of 3:0 and went to the semifinals. Thus, Oliver's decision can be called decisive for Juventus to some extent.
As a result, Oliver and his wife began to receive threats in physical violence. It came to the point that their house was guarded by the police, and the referee and his wife were forced to move to another city.