Skomina will referee Real Madrid-Manchester City
The Slovenian official was the man in charge when los blancos hosted the Citizens during the 2012/13 group stage. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner on that occasion.
Slovenian referee Damir Skomina has been selected to take charge of the Champions League semi-final second leg tie between Real Madrid and Manchester City on Wednesday night. The Eastern European has officiated over the two sides before in the competition, during the 2012/13 group stages.
Los blancos won 3-2 on that occasion (18 September 2012) despite going behind twice on the scoreboard. A similar result would earn Zinedine Zidane’s men a place in the final following last week’s scoreless stalemate in the Etihad.
Edin Dzeko (min. 68) and Aleksandar Kolarov (min. 85) both put City ahead that night, but saw their goals cancelled out by Marcelo (76) and Karim Benzema (87) respectively, before Cristiano Ronaldo provided the final twist in the tale with a deep-into-injury-time winner.
Real Madrid lined up with Casillas, Arbeloa, Pepe, Varane, Marcelo, Khedira (Modric, m.73), Xabi Alonso, Di María, Essien (Özil, m.65), Ronaldo and Higuaín (Benzema, m.73). While on the pitch for the Sky Blues were Hart, Maicon (Zabaleta, m.74), Kompany, Nastasic, Clichy, Javi García, Yaya Touré, Barry, Silva (Dzeko, m.63), Nasri (Kolarov, m.37) and Tévez.
Skomina was born in Koper on 5 August 1976. After becoming an international referee in 2003, the 39-year-old made the grade to Champions League regular in 2011.
Skomina has officiated over Real Madrid on many occasions and is viewed by many as something of a good luck charm for los merenegues. Under his stewardship the team have always either won or progressed to the next round of the competition: group stage wins over Ajax (2-0) and Lyon (3-0) in 2010, as well as the aforementioned triumph over City in 2012; a 2-0 defeat against Dortmund in the quarter-final second leg in 2014 when Ancelloti’s men went onto to lift La Décima; last season’s 5-1 thrashing of Basel in the group stage and 3-4 last-16 second leg defeat to Schalke, which did nothing to halt Madrid’s progress to the quarter-finals.
The Slovenian official was in charge for Manchester City’s 1-2 home defeat to Juventus earlier this season.
Skomina will be accompanied by his compatriots Jure Praprotnik and Robert Vukan.