The Spaniard Carlos del Cerro Grande, 45, was appointed as referee for the PSG-Manchester City shock in the Champions League on Tuesday night at the Parc des Princes.
He is an experienced referee who has never refereed the Parisians in the European Cup before.
With 15 Champions League matches to his credit, he nevertheless has solid experience at a very high level.
And if he did not referee PSG, he was on the other hand on the whistle five times in Manchester City matches: twice in the 2018-2019 season (against Shakhtar and Schalke), once in 2019 -2020 (against Dinamo Zagreb) and twice last season (against Olympiakos and during the quarter against Dortmund).
He never had an easy card except in February 2019 against Schalke in the round of 16, a meeting during which he had expelled the Argentinian defender of the Citizens Nicolas Otamendi.
👤 Carlos del Cerro Grande, the man who forgot a penalty on Mbappé during France-Germany at the Euro, has been appointed to referee PSG-Man City https://t.co/WvcBA5PaCR
- RMC Sport (@RMCsport) September 26, 2021
The Spaniard will not be a complete stranger to all Parisians.
It was he who was at the whistle during France-Germany, the first match of the Euro of the Blues in Munich, won 1-0 by the Blues.
Mr. del Cerro Grande, who had only distributed one yellow card, to Kimmich, had seen some of his decisions strongly criticized, including a charge on Benjamin Pavard and a very contentious action by Mats Hummels on Kylian Mbappé, which was said to have could be penalized with a penalty.
A seasoned referee, he has been officiating for ten years in the Spanish league, in which he has 199 matches.
From Madrid, this trained police officer therefore never referees meetings involving Real or Atlético, the two clubs in the capital.
This is also why he has never refereed Clasico between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona either.
In addition, to cut short any controversy, he rarely intervenes in meetings involving Barça.
