Olegário Benquerença will take charge of Celtic’s Champions League qualifier against Helsingborgs tomorrow night.
The Portuguese referee is no stranger of controversy with Barcelona accusing Benquerença of being Jose Mourinho’s best friend following the 2010 Champions League semi final with Inter Milan.
Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said: “I have seen it on TV and you can see that Milito’s goal was offside and Maicon’s came after a foul on [Lionel] Messi.
“We had no help from the referees. The second leg has to have an impartial referee. Inter knew us very well, they dominated the match and they knew how to stop our game.”
Benquerença has never refereed a Celtic match before but had the misfortune to be in charge of Rangers Champions League clash with Manchester United in 2010 made famous for Walter Smith’s bus parking tactics.
The 42-year-old has taken charge of 24 Champions League ties and took charge of the Wales v England Euro 2012 qualifier when Wayne Rooney was booked for a dangerous challenge on Joe Ledley.
Looking ahead to the match Helsingborgs coach Age Hareide said: “Celtic have many strong points. They are physical, robust, and they work hard.
“They are used to having the ball, and if we allow them to play to their strengths, we will have problems, so the aim is to stop them from using their usual advantages.
“I think it’s an advantage for us to play the first match at home. If it had been the other way around, and we would have played our second match at home after securing a good result in Glasgow, we would have been under a lot of pressure from the fans and the media.
“Tomorrow, a good result would be anything from 0-0 up, as long as we don’t concede.”
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As long as he ain’t Scottish.
Tainted Scottish referees.