La Liga announce referee for Barça-Bilbao

Photo by David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images

Barça and Athletic at San Mamés? Get the same ref again!

La Liga has confirmed the referees for all 10 matches in the opening weekend, and 43-year-old Carlos Del Cerro Grande will officiate the season opener at San Mamés between Athletic Bilbao and two-time defending champions Barcelona. Alejandro Hernández Hernández will be in charge of VAR.

Del Cerro Grande was the referee the last time Athletic and Barça faced each other at San Mamés, which happened just six months ago and was a very physical league match that ended 0-0 with plenty of controversy. Del Cerro Grande sent off Athletic’s Óscar De Marcos, and denied Barcelona a penalty from Yeray Álvarez on Nélson Semedo despite checking a few replays on the monitor after intervention from VAR.

This will be the 20th time Barça will have a La Liga match officiated by Del Cerro Grande, with 16 wins, 2 draws and just one loss (to Real Sociedad at Anoeta in the 2014/15 season) in the previous 19 games.

Source: barcablaugranes.com