Media in Barcelona are already expressing their concern over the referee for the Champions League visit of Liverpool.
Dutch official Bjorn Kuipers will take charge of the semi-final first leg clash at Camp Nou on Wednesday.
Barcelona newspaper Mundo Deportivo regard Kuipers as a “permissive referee” and point to his performance when the Catalans were eliminated from the Champions League by Juventus at home in 2017.
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They believe Kuipers allowed a physical game from Juve, who were 3-0 up from the first leg, and highlighted incidents involving Miralem Pjanic on Lionel Messi, Dani Alves on Neymar and Gonzalo Higuain on Samuel Umtiti that all went unpunished.
Juve drew 0-0 to progress to the semi-finals.
However, another Barcelona-based news outlet, Sport , declared Kuipers as “one of the best referees on the Continent”.
Kuipers has been in charge of five previous Liverpool games, with the Reds recording four wins and a draw. The most recent game was the 2-1 Champions League qualifying win at Hoffenheim last season.
The referee, though, infamously dismissed Lazar Markovic during the 1-1 Anfield stalemate against Basel that saw Liverpool eliminated from the Champions League group stages in 2014-15.
Kuipers has refereed six Barcelona games, with the Spanish side winning two and drawing four.
