Rizzoli to oversee Argentina-Belgium quarter-final
- adamhigginsuk
- Jul 3, 2014
- 2 min read
ITALIAN referee Nicola Rizzoli will be the man in the middle for Argentina’s quarter-final with Belgium on Saturday at the 2014 World Cup.
The 42-year-old will oversee proceedings in Brasilia as the tournament favourites take on the dark horses for the right to face one of Holland or Costa Rica in the semi-finals.
The linesmen will be fellow countrymen Renato Faverani and Andrea Stefani with Australia’s Benjamin Williams assigned fourth official duties and his assistant Matthew Cream on standby as the fifth official.
Meanwhile, Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan will take charge of Saturday’s other quarter-final between the Netherlands and Costa Rica in Salvador.
Rizzoli has already taken charge of Argentina so far in the tournament, handling their 3-2 win over Nigeria in their final Group F match.
He was also in control of reigning world champions Spain’s heavy 5-1 defeat to Holland in the 2010 final rematch on 13 June.
The Modena-based architect has been officiating in Serie A since 2002 and became a Fifa-listed referee five years later.
His first high-profile appointment was the 2010 Europa League final where he was in the middle for Atletico Madrid’s 2-1 extra-time win over Premier League side Fulham in Hamburg.
Rizzoli took charge of England’s opening match against France, Portugal’s 2-1 group stage win over Holland and Spain’s quarter-final victory over the French at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.
He was then selected for the prestigious Champions League final between German rivals Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in 2013.
Rizzoli, one of nine European officials chosen for Brazil, beat off competition from Gianluca Rocchi and Paolo Tagliavento to be Italian’s representative for the tournament after winning the Serie A Referee of the Year for the past three seasons.
In the build-up to the World Cup, he oversaw four qualifying games including Portugal’s play-off first leg against Sweden.
He took charge of 28 matches in all competitions in 2013-14, brandishing 120 yellows and eight red cards as well as awarding 15 penalties.
Rizzoli was at the helm for five Champions League games last term which culminated in Chelsea’s semi-final second leg defeat to Atletico Madrid.
Argentina scraped past Switzerland in the round of 16 after claiming three narrow victories over Bosnia, Iran and Nigeria to top Group F.
Belgium overcame a brave USA in extra-time to reach their first World Cup quarter-final in 28 years after taking maximum points from Algeria, Russia and South Korea to win Group H.
The 17:00 BST kick-off at the Estadio Nacional on Saturday, 5 July, will be screened live on ITV and ITV HD.
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