Villarreal’s Champions League return to the Estadio de la Cerámica on Tuesday, against Napoli, will be overseen by German Elite referee Daniel Siebert, with the appointment adding a familiar European name to a night that begins the club’s home campaign in the competition.
Siebert, 42, has refereed in Germany’s top division since 2012 and became an international official in 2015. He is taking charge of his second European club fixture of the season, but this will be his first Champions League match of the campaign. Sören Storks, also from Germany, will operate as the video assistant referee.
The official has encountered Villarreal three times previously in continental competition, with the Spanish side unbeaten across those meetings: two draws and one victory. The most recent came in the first leg of their 2021-22 Champions League round-of-16 tie with Juventus at the Cerámica, a match which ended 1-1 before Villarreal progressed in Turin.
A year earlier, Siebert had refereed Villarreal’s 1-0 Europa League win away to Dinamo Zagreb. His other match involving the club was a 3-3 draw at Spartak Moscow during the 2018-19 Europa League campaign.
Napoli have had more mixed results under the German. This will be his third game involving the Italian side after one win and one defeat. Their latest encounter ended in a heavy 6-2 loss to PSV Eindhoven in last season’s league phase, a result Napoli will not want recalled as they arrive for another demanding European away night.
Siebert is widely remembered from the 2022 World Cup for the contentious Ghana-Uruguay match in Qatar and the incidents that followed its final whistle. On Tuesday, however, the focus shifts to the Cerámica, where Villarreal begin their Champions League home schedule against Italian opposition with a referee whose previous European record has been favourable to them.
