UEFA have appointed experienced Serb referee Milorad Mazic to take charge of tomorrow’s Malmo-Celtic Champions League play-off.
The 42-year-old handled seven Champions League matches last season after taking charge of two games at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
As well as his Champions League duties Mazic refereed four Euro 2016 qualifiers last season including Scotland v Ireland and Israel v Wales.
In last season’s Champions League the Serbian was in charge of the last 16 tie that Juventus won 3-0 away to Borussia Dortmund and the quarter final where Atletico Madrid drew 0-0 with Real Madrid.
With massive stakes on the line for both clubs tomorrow night Mazic will have to be on top of his game with the tension likely to be cranking up today as both managers face the media.
Malmo’s 1-0 defeat at Hacken on Saturday, which featured five changes to the side that lost to Celtic including the return of suspended duo Markus Rosenberg and Enoch Adu, has dealt a significant blow to their hopes of retaining the title.
In contrast Ronny Deila was able to make nine changes to his side and still come away from Dundee United with a 3-1 victory.
Leigh Griffiths got the scoring underway- netting Celtic’s sixth consecutive goal at Tannadice covering four matches- to maintain his form going into the return leg with Malmo.
The former Hibs striker has scored in his last four outings and insisted on keeping his place in the team rather than take a rest before the crucial European tie.
“He wanted to start,” Delia explained. “He feels great and as a striker you just want to keep on playing when he scores a lot of goals.
“He scored again and worked really hard and showed the attitude we want to have. I’m happy he played and we took him off after 65 minutes so he got a rest also. Strikers are a little bit different from the others.”