Paolo Mazzoleni will referee Celtic’s Champions League qualifier against Astana- two years after taking charge of the infamous ‘2-0 defeat’ from Legia Warsaw.
After that match at Murrayfield it looked like Celtic were heading for the Europa League play-off but Legia’s decision to send on Bartosz Bereszynski proved costly.
Bereszynski was ineligible for the match with UEFA awarding Celtic a 3-0 win allowing the hoops to go through on the away goal rule on a 4-4 aggregate.
Despite the howls of complaint from Legia there was no reprieve with Celtic taking their place in the play-off round where they lost out to Maribor on a 2-1 aggregate despite a promising 1-1 draw in the first leg in Slovenia.
Legia mounted a high profile appeal against the ruling but the case was cut and dried with the Polish champions dropping into the Europa League play off despite ‘winning on the park’.
Mazzoleni has only had two international appointments since then and at the age of 42 is unlikely to be climbing the ladder to the top although claims that he is the Italian Iain Brines are wide of the mark.
Celtic flew out to Kazakhstan today without any new faces in the squad.
Kolo Toure stayed behind to step up his training with Kristoffer Ajer missing out due to a hand injury.
Toure is expected to be involved in Celtic’s International Champions Cup match with Barcelona on Saturday and could play his way into the squad for the return match against Astana.