UEFA have appointed an all-Italian officiating team to take charge of Arsenal’s midweek match at home to Bayern Munich.
UEFA have now confirmed their match officials for Wednesday’s game between Arsenal and Bayern Munich, with Italian official Marco Guida to referee the contest.
Guida will be assisted by Filippo Meli and Giorgio Peretti, with Fabio Maresca as the fourth official. Aleandro Di Paolo will be on VAR, with Marco Di Bello acting as his assistant.
44-year-old Guida has some experience of refereeing in the Champions League, but this is set to be his busiest season yet.
The referee has already officiated three Champions League matches this season, most recently taking Spurs’ 0-0 draw with AS Monaco. Wednesday’s game will bring him to the most he’s ever refereed in this phase of the competition, beating his previous record of three games in 2023/24.
Guida has refereed both Arsenal and Bayern once before, but the results were very different. The Gunners suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Lens in 2023, whilst Bayern smashed Dynamo Kyiv 5-0 in 2021.
With the possible exception of the two knockout games Guida refereed in 2023/24, this will probably be his biggest Champions League match yet.
Going into Matchday 5, Bayern and Arsenal sit first and second in the Champions League table respectively, as two of just three teams in the entire competition with a perfect four wins from four matches so far. The two sides are even level on goal difference with +11.
One of those perfect runs will end on Wednesday, if not both.