Ovidiu Hategan certainly does his homework before refereeing Champions League matches as he made a key rule clear before Marcus Rashford scored a penalty for Manchester United vs Istanbul Basaksehir.
After a VAR check confirmed that Rashford was onside before he was recklessly brought down by Celtic loanee Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo, the Romanian chief ensured there’d be no controversy.
Hategan went up to Istanbul keeper Mert Gunok and made it clear – both verbally and physically – to not leap off his line before the penalty was struck – which would lead to a retake.
This comes after Sam Johnstone was robbed of a dream moment by the flawed rule as his penalty save against Bruno Fernandes in this weekend’s controversial 1-0 defeat was chalked off.
Fernandes scored the retake, which came just minutes after he was lucky to see a penalty he conceded overturned by David Coote, with that spot-kick proving to be decisive in the tie.
Hategan also reminded players on the edge of the box not to encroach into the area, which would also lead to a retake.
Pictures from BT Sport.
This rare sign of brilliant officiating deserves to win Hategan praise, it’s also abundantly clear that the level of refereeing for the Champions League is much better than what we seen in the Premier League.
6 officials did not pick up encroachment by Fred on second Fernandez penalty.The only reason the D is on the pitch is for penalty kicks.Either incompetence corruption or both