Montenegrin referee Nikola Dabanovic has been appointed by UEFA to direct the match corresponding to the eighth day of the Europa League league phase between the Real Betis and Feyenoord which will be played this Thursday starting … at 9:00 p.m. at the Cartuja stadium. Dabanovic will be assisted from the wings by fellow Montenegrins Vladan Todorovic and Srdan Jovanovic. Milos Boskovic will act as fourth referee. The VAR will be the Croatian Ivan Bebek with the assistance of his compatriot Mario Zebec.
It will not be the first time that Betis meets Dabanovic, who at 44 years old has a lot of experience in UEFA competitions, given that this referee was in charge of administering justice in the duel that the green and whites played against the Sparta in Prague in the 2023-24 season and which concluded with a 1-0 Betica defeat in the group stage of the Europa League.
Then he showed four yellow cards to the Betic players (Aitor, Pezzella, Guido Rodríguez and Miranda) and one to the Czechs, in a duel that was a blow to Heliopolitan aspirations in a competition from which they were finally eliminated in the aforementioned group stage to fall to the Conference.
But the Montenegrin referee was also in the first leg of the round of 16 of the Conference that Betis played last season against the Vitoria de Guimaraes at the Benito Villamarín stadium and which ended with a tie at two. Then he showed four yellow cards to the Betic players (Aitor, Isco, Antony and Chimy) and none to the Portuguese. The tie was decided in the second leg with the green and white team scoring 0-4.
Dabanovic has been a FIFA referee since 2009 and has more experience with Spanish teams such as Espanyol’s 1-1 against Fenerbahçe in the 2019-20 Europa League, Sevilla’s 1-0 against Apoel in the same competition that season or Villarreal’s 4-0 against Maccabi in 2020-21.
