Ovidiu Hategan will be an uncomfortable reminder of Celtic’s worst ever European result when he takes charge of the Champions League Play Off against Astana.
The Romanian referee was in charge at the Nou Camp last season when the hoops missed a penalty and crashed to a 7-0 defeat.
Hategan refereed three group stage matches plus one knock out game and was also the man in the middle for Manchester United’s Europa League semi-final win over Celta Vigo at Old Trafford.
The 37-year-old is much more experienced than the officials that were in charge of the earlier qualifiers and took charge of two matches at Euro 16 including Ireland’s 1-0 win over Italy which took Martin O’Neill’s side into the knock out phase.
Rather than bother about who will referee the match it seems that Brendan Rodgers is concentrating on working his defence on the training ground while hoping to make a breakthrough with Manchester City over the transfer of Patrick Roberts.
