PSG – Real Sociedad: Who is Marco Guida, the often controversial Italian referee?

On Monday, UEFA made public the name of the referee who will officiate this Wednesday during the Champions League round of 16 first leg between PSG and Real Sociedad: Marco Guida. A name that doesn’t necessarily speak to everyone, and that’s normal. Aged 42, this Italian referee still has a relatively meager CV on the continental scene. If he has 7 small appearances in the Champions League, all of them have been in the group stage so far.

This season, he had also directed three, with a few controversies here and there. Appointed to be on the whistle for Lens – Arsenal, which had also been rather successful for Lensois, victorious in the rules of the art at Bollaert in October (2-1), the Italian had on the other hand been talked about during of the match between Manchester United and FC Copenhagen three weeks later (1-0). That evening, he had in fact sent the players back to the locker room… in the 44th minute of play. A general incomprehension and an error which had given way to a few memories: those of Janny Sikazwe. As a reminder, during CAN 2021, the Zambian referee stopped the match between Tunisia and Mali in the 87th minute, before finally blowing the whistle in the 89th minute.

Guida got knocked out in Italy

But what you need to know is that this evening, Marco Guida will not celebrate his baptism of fire at the Parc des Princes. In September 2021, he had already officiated during a group match won by Mauricio Pochettino’s players against Leipzig (3-2). At the very end of the match, the Italian had also offered a very generous penalty to Kylian Mbappé, while the Parisians were jostled by the Germans (2-2 at that time). Lionel Messi transformed it and took Leipzig away from its hopes of the 1/8 finals, which finally vanished a few weeks later. If Nordi Mukiele had wanted to be measured after the match, believing that Kylian Mbappé “had let himself down a little”the German press made it a personal matter the next day… However, Marco Guida’s worst memory will certainly remain this Serie A meeting between Torino and Inter Milan, which he led in March 2022.

At the time, the transalpine press described his performance as “scandalous”and the daily Tuttosport was even more virulent, going so far as to give it a score of 0/10. Despite a huge foul by Ranocchia on Belotti, the Italian did not designate the penalty spot, defending the thesis of regulatory contact. This season, however, Guida handed out a red card to Sergi Roberto during Antwerp – Barça for a much less obvious fault, before finally canceling it after viewing the VAR. His latest controversy to date? Last Saturday. In charge of the meeting between Roma and Inter (2-4), the man in black allowed a goal to Francesco Acerbi, judging Marcus Thuram’s offside position passive, despite obvious contact from the French with Rui Patricio. A situation parallel to that experienced by Leipzig last night against Real Madrid with the disallowed goal from Benjamin Šeško. Wishing Parisians to see the wind turn in their favor this evening.

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