Arsenal’s match away to Inter Milan on Tuesday will be refereed by an official who has never reffed the Gunners before.
UEFA have confirmed their choice of match officials for Tuesday’s game between Arsenal and Inter Milan, with an almost fully Portuguese group in charge for the fixture.
Joao Pinheiro will referee the match, assisted by Bruno Jesus and Luciano Maia. Joao Goncalves will be the fourth official.
Then Tiago Martins will be on VAR, with Carlos del Cerro Grande as the assistant VAR. Del Cerro is the one non-Portuguese official on the match, as he hails from Spain.
Referee Pinheiro has never taken charge of an Arsenal match before, though he has refereed a number of other English teams including Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, and others.
The same is true of VAR official Tiago Martins, who has also never refereed the Gunners. So the match officials should be coming to this game almost completely fresh.
The “almost” is because Pinheiro has refereed hosts Inter Milan once before, taking a group stage match against RB Leipzig back in 2024. Inter won the match 1-0, though they felt aggrieved at a couple of the decisions given against them.
In terms of his general refereeing experience, Pinheiro reffed the UEFA Super Cup between PSG and Spurs earlier this season, as well as the Allianz Cup between Sporting CP and Benfica last January.
The ref will be very familiar with Viktor Gyokeres, who scored penalties for Sporting in normal time and in the shootout of that match.
After Arsenal were denied a clear spot-kick away to Inter last season, only to see the opposition awarded a penalty for a soft handball call, the Gunners will just hope the officiating gives them a fair chance this time around.