Sebastian Gishamer witnessed a UEFA Champions League surprise up close on Wednesday.
The 37-year-old from Salzburg acted as referee during FC Chelsea’s 2-2 draw in Azerbaijan at Qarabag Agdam and made his debut in the premier class without any major mistakes.
Both teams have seven points in the league phase after four games and are therefore fully on track towards the knockout phase.
Qarabag turns backlog
The game got off to a perfect start for the club world champions from London, with the 18-year-old Brazilian Estevao surprising goalie Mateusz Kochalski with a shot into the near corner (16′).
The surprise team of this year’s CL season is undeterred and strikes back twice. After Camilo Duran hit the bar, Leandro Andrade scored a direct pass to make it 1-1 (29′).
What’s interesting is that due to an injury to Kady, the hosts are outnumbered at the time.
Gishamer hands out five yellows
Ten minutes later, Marko Jankovic confidently converted a penalty after a handball from Chelsea defender Jorrel Hato. Soon after the restart, Alejandro Garnacho came into play for the English team (53′).
They have a little more chance of scoring the winning goal, but like the home team they remain unlucky in the end. Gishamer handed out five yellow cards in a sometimes heated game, two after forming a pack.
It is the first CL appearance by an Austrian referee since Robert Schörgenhofer on November 2, 2011 in Viktoria Pilsen’s 4-0 defeat against Barcelona.
Pafos surprise victory
In the parallel game, Pafos FC pull off a surprise at home against FC Villareal. The Cypriots narrowly beat the Spaniards 1-0 in the end.
Derrick Luckassen scored the decisive goal shortly after the break (46th). Pafos is in 19th place in the CL league phase with five points from four games, while Villareal only has one point and is 32nd.
