Preview: UEFA Champions League final 2013

Wembley will be the centre of attention on Saturday (c) stadionwelt.de

Three days ahead UEFA Champions League final at Wembley Stadium, it's time to look ahead to the often called "greatest football match of the world".

Preview

25 May 2013, 20:45 CET

Wembley Stadium, London - England

Borussia Dortmund - FC Bayern München

Referee: Nicola Rizzoli (Italy)

Assistant Referee 1: Renato Faverani (Italy)

Assistant Referee 2: Andrea Stefani (Italy)

Additional Assistant Referee 1: Gianluca Rocchi (Italy)

Additional Assistant Referee 2: Paolo Tagliavento (Italy)

Fourth Official: Damir Skomina (Slovenia)

Reserve Assistant Referee: Gianluca Cariolato (Italy)

UEFA Delegate: Joël Wolff (Luxembourg)

UEFA Referee Observer: David R. Elleray (England)

UEFA Referee Liaison Officer: Peter Elsworth (England) 

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Kits

Referee

Full Name: Nicola Rizzoli
Origin: Mirandola, Italy
Birthday: 05 October 1971 (41 years old)
Height, Weight: 180 cm, 70 kg
Profession: Architect
Languages: Italian, English
Referee since: 1988
International since: 2007
Elite Group since: July 2009
UEFA CL debut: Sporting 2:0 FC Basel (October 2008)
Champions League appearances: 26
Serie A matches: 166

Card Stats: 208 yellow cards [3,78/m], 5 second yellow cards [0,09/m], 1 red card [0,02/m] in 55 international official matches

Remarkable achievements: 2010 UEFA Europa League Final, 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, 2012 UEFA European Championship, 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, being pre-selected for 2014 FIFA World Cup

Assistant Referee 1

Full Name: Renato Faverani
Origin: Milan, Italy
Birthday: 25 November 1969 (43 years old)

International since: 2007
UEFA CL debut: Olympique Lyon 2:2 FC Barcelona (November 2007 with Stefano Farina) 

Champions League appearances: 21

Serie A matches: 145

Remarkable achievements: 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, 2012 UEFA European Championship, 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, being pre-selected for 2014 FIFA World Cup

Assistant Referee 2

Full Name: Andrea Stefani
Origin: Milan, Italy
Birthday: 15 October 1969 (43 years old)

International since: 2007
UEFA CL debut: Standard 2:0 Olympiakos (November 2009 with Nicola Rizzoli) 

Champions League appearances: 19

Serie A matches: 139

Remarkable achievements: 2011 FIFA Club World Cup, 2012 UEFA European Championship, 2013 UEFA Champions League Final, 2013 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, being pre-selected for 2014 FIFA World Cup

Additional Assistant Referee 1

Full Name: Gianluca Rocchi
Origin: Florence, Italy
Birthday: 25 August 1973 (39 years old)

International since: 2008
UEFA CL debut: Schalke 04 2:0 SL Benfica (September 2010) 

Champions League appearances: 14

Serie A matches: 144

Remarkable achievements: 2011 UEFA Europa League Final as 4th official, 2012 UEFA European Championship as AAR, 2012 Olympic Games (Semifinal), 2013 UEFA Champions League Final as AAR, being pre-selected for 2014 FIFA World Cup

Additional Assistant Referee 2

Full Name: Paolo Tagliavento
Origin: Terni, Italy
Birthday: 19 September 1972 (40 years old)

International since: 2007
UEFA CL debut: Arsenal FC 3:1 Partizan (December 2010) 

Champions League appearances: 14

Serie A matches: 141

Remarkable achievements: 2011 UEFA Europa League Final as AAR, 2011 UEFA Under-21 European Championship Final, 2012 UEFA European Championship as AAR, 2013 UEFA Champions League Final as AAR

Fourth Official

Full Name: Damir Skomina
Origin: Koper, Slovenia
Birthday: 05 August 1976 (36 years old)

International since: 2003
UEFA CL debut: PSV Eindhoven 2:0 Olympique Marseille (October 2008)

Champions League appearances: 26

 Head-to-Head (international stage)

Competition	Stage	Home	-:-	Away	Referee
CL 1997/98	QF	Dortmund	1:0 aet	FC Bayern	László Vagner (HUN)
CL 1997/98	QF	FC Bayern	0:0	Dortmund	Pierluigi Collina (ITA)

Rizzoli's meetings with Dortmund

Competition	Stage	Home	-:-	Away	Referee
no match

Rizzoli's meetings with FC Bayern

Competition	Stage	Home	-:-	Away	Referee
CL 2011/12	R16	FC Basel	1:0	FC Bayern	Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)
CL 2009/10	QF	Man. United	3:2	FC Bayern	Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)

Rizzoli's matches in the past three UEFA seasons

Competition	Stage	Home	-:-	Away	Referee Observer
CL 2012/13	FINAL	Dortmund	-:-	FC Bayern	David R. Elleray (ENG)
CL 2012/13	R16	Málaga CF	2:0	FC Porto	Ilkka Koho (FIN)
CL 2012/13	GS	SC Braga	1:2	Galatasaray	Keith Hackett (ENG)
CL 2012/13	GS	Schalke 04	2:2	Arsenal FC	Martin Iseli (SUI)
CL 2012/13	GS	Celtic Glasgow	0:0	SL Benfica	Jean Lemmer (LUX)
EL 2012/13	PLO	FC Twente	4:1 aet	Bursaspor	Robert Jeurissen (BEL)
EURO 2012	QF	Spain	2:0	France	Kyros Vassaras (GRE)
EURO 2012	GS	Portugal	2:1	Netherlands	David R. Elleray (ENG)
EURO 2012	GS	France	1:1	England	Jozef Marko (SVK)
EL 2011/12	QF	Athletic Bilbao	2:2	Schalke 04	Francesco Bianchi (SUI)
CL 2011/12	R16	FC Basel	1:0	FC Bayern	Zdravko Jokić (SRB)
CL 2011/12	GS	Olympique Marseille	0:1	Olympiakos	Aron Schmidhuber (GER)
CL 2011/12	GS	Olympique Lyon	0:2	Real Madrid	Guy Goethals (BEL)
CL 2011/12	GS	Valencia CF	1:1	Chelsea FC	Rodger Gifford (WAL)
CL 2011/12	PLO	Malmö FF	2:0	Dinamo Zagreb	Charles Agius (MLT)
CL 2010/11	QF	Tottenham	0:1	Real Madrid	Johannes Reijgwaart (NED)
CL 2010/11	R16	Arsenal FC	2:1	FC Barcelona	Léon Schelings (BEL)
CL 2010/11	GS	Schalke 04	3:0	Olympique Lyon	Athanassios Briakos (GRE)
CL 2010/11	GS	Rangers FC	1:1	Valencia CF	Karl-Erik Nilsson (SWE)
CL 2010/11	GS	FC Barcelona	5:1	Panathinaikos	László Vagner (HUN)
CL 2010/11	PLO	Sevilla FC	3:4	SC Braga	Kaj Østergaard (DEN)

UEFA Referee Observer David Elleray's matches in the past three seasons

Competition	Stage	Home	-:-	Away	Referee
CL 2012/13	FINAL	Dortmund	-:-	FC Bayern	Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)
CL 2012/13	R16	Paris S.G.	1:1	Valencia CF	Milorad Mažić (SRB)
CL 2012/13	GS	AC Milan	0:1	Zenit St. Petersburg	Tony Chapron (FRA)
EURO 2012	FINAL	Spain	4:0	Italy	Pedro Proença (POR)
EURO 2012	GS	Portugal	2:1	Netherlands	Nicola Rizzoli (ITA)
EURO 2012	GS	Spain	4:0	Ireland	Pedro Proença (POR)
EURO 2012	GS	Germany	1:0	Portugal	Stéphane Lannoy (FRA)
CL 2011/12	SF	Real Madrid	2:1 (1:3 pso)	FC Bayern	Viktor Kassai (HUN)
CL 2011/12	GS	RB Salzburg	2:0	Paris S.G.	Liran Liany (ISR)
CL 2011/12	GS	SSC Napoli	1:1	FC Bayern	Olegário Benquerença (POR)
CL 2010/11	QF	Schalke 04	2:1	Internazionale	Damir Skomina (SVN)
EL 2010/11	GS	Paris S.G.	0:0	BATE	Kevin Blom (NED)
CL 2010/11	GS	Olympique Marseille	1:0	MSK Zilina	István Vad (HUN)