Donatas Rumšas will be the man in charge when Celtic face Lazio this Wednesday.
It’s set to be a huge evening in Glasgow as we bid for our first UEFA Champions League group stage win since 2017, and our first at home since 2013.
Celtic Park will be rocking for the visit of the Serie A side who we defeated both home and away during the 2019/20 UEFA Europa League.
Referee Rumšas is from Lithuania and will be assisted by compatriots Aleksandr Radius and Dovydas Sužiedėlis. The fourth official — Robertas Valikonis — is also Lithuanian.
The Video Assistant Referee is Juan Martínez Munuera (Spain) while Roi Reinshreiber (Israel) is his assistant. (UEFA)
Rumšas doesn’t appear to have a huge amount of experience at the top level of European football, going by his Transfermarkt record.
Wednesday will be just his third Champions League group stage match after taking charge of one in each of the past two seasons. The 35-year-old was the man in the middle for Manchester City vs Copenhagen last season as well as Shakhtar Donetsk vs Sheriff the previous year.
He has taken charge of seven Europa League matches including the likes of Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven.
Despite that experience not being huge, the official has already ventured to Glasgow this season and been involved in a controversial decision.
Rumšas was the referee for Rangers’ home qualifier against Servette. The Ibrox side won the match 2-1 but Rumšas did the seemingly unthinkable and awarded a penalty to the visitors — something that hasn’t happened in a Premiership match in Govan since 2019.
Struggling forward Cyriel Dessers was adjudged to have handled the ball in his own box, with VAR instructing Rumšas to look at the monitor. It’s fair to say that the decision didn’t go down well with our rivals with the familiar sound of boos being heard.
“That was confusing for me,” Dessers said after the game. “Last week, we had a meeting with the referees and they said if it is deflected off a team-mate and it touches your arm, then it is never a penalty.” (The Herald)
The Servette manager admitted his side had got “a stroke of luck” after the game (Scotsman). Perhaps they wouldn’t have been so luck had it been Connor Goldson.
Strangely enough, the referee from our matchday one defeat to Feyenoord — Irfan Peljto — also had history with Rangers. He did end up sending off two of our players as well, so let’s hope we don’t give Rumšas any encouragement.
In other news, as rivals fracture Brendan Rodgers shows unity with Celtic hierarchy
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