Who is Anthony Taylor, Dortmund-PSG Champions League semi-final referee?

UEFA have confirmed that Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final (first leg) clash between Borussia Dortmund and PSG at the Signal Iduna Park will be overseen by Anthony Taylor.

The Manchester native was last in Champions League action in the previous round being in charge as Barcelona recorded a 1-2 win over PSG in Paris but recently made the headlines in England after his performance during the Nottingham Forest-Everton clash saw the former European Cup winners tweet: ‘Our patience has been tested with three penalties not given’.

Despite the incident, the Mancunian has been selected by UEFA as one of the 18 referees who will take charge at the forthcoming European Championships which get underway in Germany next June.

PSG ‘previous’

The 45-year-old had previously overseen PSG on the European stage six times with the Ligue 1 giants yet to lose with the English official in charge winning five Games (Juventus (2-1), Real Madrid (3-0), two against Borussia Dortmund (2-0 and 1-2) and Shakhtar Donetsk (2-0)) and drawing once against FC Barcelona.

Taylor also took charge of the 2023 Europa League final in Budapest as he oversaw Sevilla’s record seventh UEL title overcoming Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma in the final after a dramatic penalty shoot-out and was the man in the middle for the 2021 UEFA Nations League final between Spain and France.

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The Manchester born official was also one of the two English referees in action at the 2022 Qatar World Cup (along with Michael Oliver) with Taylor in charge for two group Games and despite being in contention to oversee the final with The Times claiming that Taylor was unable to be chosen for the final due to the political tensions between the UK and Argentina as a result of the Falklands coNFLict in 1982.