{
  "id": 15586994,
  "title": "Referee confirmed for Liverpool v Villarreal – one good omen but he has history with the Reds",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/referee-confirmed-for-liverpool-v-villarreal-one-good-omen-but-he-has",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-19T09:11:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Sports",
    "slug": "yahoo-sports",
    "url": "https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/referee-confirmed-liverpool-v-villarreal-091100498.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Ukrainian Football Association has announced Szymon Marciniak as the referee for the upcoming UEFA Champions League match between Liverpool and Villarreal at Anfield. The Polish official will be supported by Tomasz Listkiewicz and Adam Kupsik as touchline assistants, with Wojciech Myc as fourth official and Piotr Lasyk providing VAR assistance. This will be Marciniak's eighth time officiating a Liverpool game, where the Reds have won five of the last seven encounters. Notably, the most recent of these victories was a 2-0 win over Villarreal at Anfield in 2020. However, Marciniak has previously faced criticism from Liverpool fans when the 45-year-old failed to send off Marco Verratti for a high challenge on Joe Gomez during the 2018 Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain, and was lenient towards Atletico Madrid's diving in the 2020 game at the Metropolitano.",
  "summary": "UEFA has confirmed the appointment of match official for the Champions League fixture between Liverpool and Villarreal on Tuesday night.The Reds will play host to the LaLiga side at Anfield tomorrow, ...",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}