Davide Massa will referee Arsenal’s match against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, having sent off Piero Hincapie and and Pablo Barrios in an Atletico match last season.
UEFA have confirmed their match official appointments for Arsenal’s Champions League game against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday, with Italian referee Davide Massa to take charge of the contest.
Massa will be assisted by Filippo Meli and Stefano Alassio, with Daniele Chiffi on VAR, assisted by Jerome Brisard. The fourth official will be Matteo Marcenaro, meaning a team of five officials from Italy and one from France (Brisard).
44-year-old Massa has refereed both Arsenal and Atletico Madrid in the past, though never against each other.
In the Europa League, Massa refereed Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Qarabag, the 3-0 win over Frankfurt, and the heartbreaking 2-1 defeat to Olympiacos. In the Champions League, he refereed Arsenal’s 3-0 win over AS Monaco last season.
The only major decision Massa made in those four matches was to send off a Frankfurt player, though it was late in the game and Arsenal were already winning anyway.
By contrast, despite only refereeing Atletico twice, the official’s last encounter involving Diego Simeone’s side was a controversial one.
Atletico hosted Bayer Leverkusen in January’s Champions League clash earlier this year, and within 23 minutes Massa had brandished a red card for a dangerous challenge by Atletico’s Pablo Barrios.
Arsenal summer signing Piero Hincapie, then of Leverkusen, took advantage to give his team a 1-0 lead. But Julian Alvarez netted an equaliser, and Hincapie was then also sent off for a second yellow card as he made a challenge from behind to prevent an Atletico player getting into the box.
10 against 10, Atletico scored again through Alvarez to win the match in the last minute.
It seems likely the injured Hincapie will be fit to return to the squad with Arsenal on Tuesday, so he’ll hope for a less eventful match this time around.