Cüneyt Çakir to rule ‘Chelsea-Barcelona’ clash

CAIRO – 18 February 2018: The Turkish Cüneyt Çakir will be in charge of arbitration for the first leg of the Champions League’s 16th round on Tuesday between Chelsea and FC Barcelona at Stamford Bridge at 09:45 p.m. (CLT).

In the semi-final round of Champions league, 2011/12 edition, at the Camp Nou, which Çakir also refereed, the match ended (2-2). In this match, Messi missed a penalty which was a crucial aspect that eliminated Barcelona [3-2 on aggregate] by adding this result to the 1-0 of the first leg.

In addition, the Turkish referee has encountered FC Barcelona on five other occasions, including the final of the 2015 Champions League against Juventus (3-1) in Berlin.

He also witnessed the undefeated matches for Barcelona, the duels against Rubin Kazan (1-1) in the 2010/11 season; against Benfica (0-2) in 2012/13; against Roma (6-1) in 2015/16; and before the Arsenal (0-2), in the first leg of the round of the 2014/15 season.

Çakir is widely known for his yellow and red cards in big matches but this hasn’t prevented him from taking the helm this season and the last season in the Champions League with matches such as: Napoli vs Madrid in Italy, Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid in Spain, Atletico Madrid vs Chelsea in Spain, Tottenham Hotspur vs Real Madrid in London and Paris St. Germain vs Bayern Munich in Germany.