CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Who is Anthony Taylor, the referee for Porto vs Barcelona in the Champions League?
It’s matchday two in UEFA’s showpiece competition and we’re looking forward to minimal controversy from the officials at the Estádio Do Dragão.
As the 2023/24 season gathers pace, Barcelona, under the leadership of Xavi Hernández, are finding their feet quickly and the team remains undefeated in all competitions thus far. This second Champions League group match on Wednesday is likely to be the toughest of a relatively easy set of fixtures, away in Portugal, and could go a long way to securing top spot for the knockout stage draw.
A 5-0 drubbing of Royal Antwerp was the perfect start in their opener, while Porto similarly picked up three points with a 3-1 win over Shakhtar Donetsk, although come into this clash on the back of a defeat to national rivals Benfica. A tasty game awaits, and we’ll need a top set of officials to keep everything above board.
Who is Anthony Taylor?
Manchester born Anthony Taylor is the man assigned to this game and he comes with a rather impressive resume. The 44-year-old English referee was in charge of six UEFA Champions League matches last season as well as one UEFA Europa League match, before being handed the big one in that latter competition. Taylor stepped out in May, at the 67,000 capacity stadium in Budapest as he whistled for Sevilla’s record seventh UEL title overcoming Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma in the final.
Other notable games saw Taylor referee the 2020 UEFA Super Cup which took place in the same Hungarian stadium, between Bayern Munich and Sevilla, as well as the 2021 UEFA Nations League final between Spain and France.
Taylor and the Chelsea fans
Some may remember that Taylor has not been appreciated by Chelsea fans in particular. In the wake of Chelsea’s 2-2 Premier League draw against Tottenham last season, a petition was initiated by them and amassed hundreds of thousands of signatures online asking for him to be kept away from games involving The Blues. They pointed to a series of contentious refereeing decisions from him spanning several years. Despite this groundswell of support, the Premier League stood firm.
Who are the assistant referees and VAR for Porto vs Barcelona?
Supporting Taylor will be Gary Beswick and Adam Nunn, also from England, serving as assistant referees. Stuart Attwell, another English official, is the fourth official keeping Xavi and Sérgio Conceição in line.
The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) is Bastian Dankert from Germany, with Robert Jones from England as his assistant aka AVAR.
These officials are responsible for overseeing and making decisions during the match to ensure fair play and adherence to the rules of the game. Communication is key and we’ll assume they’ll know how to award goals that should be goals etc and so on. Talking of which, after this game, Anthony Taylor will take charge of Brighton vs Liverpool in the Premier League.