By Graham Falk

Copyright scotsman

Celtic will look to begin their Europa League campaign with a win as they head to Serbia to face Crvena zvezda in the opening game of the competition (kick-off: 8pm). Fresh from a comfortable 4-0 win over Partick Thistle in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, head coach Brendan Rodgers will look to pick up three points in their League Phase opener, with the likes of Kasper Schmeichel, Daizen Maeda, and Michel-Ange Balikwisha all hoping to return to the starting XI after starting the game on the bench at the weekend. Their hosts Crvena zvezda, will be confident of kicking off their own campaign with three points, though, following an excellent start to the new SuperLiga season. Winning all seven of their opening games, Vladan Milojević’s side sit top of the table, having scored an average of 4.29 goals per game domestically. Ahead of the game, we look at who UEFA has chosen as the match officials at the Rajko Mitic Stadium: The official taking charge of Celtic’s opening game in the Europa League is Romanian referee Radu Petrescu. A well-respected referee, the 42-year-old has taken charge of several high-profile games in his career, including Champions League League Phases clashes between Manchester City and Feyenoord, and Aston Villa and Bayern Munich last season. He has hardly any instances of controversy and is considered one of UEFA’s top referees. He has taken charge of eight games so far in the 2025/26 season, six of which were in the Romanian top flight, with the other two matches coming in World Cup and Champions League qualifiers respectively. He has awarded 31 yellow cards in those eight games, averaging 3.88 yellow cards per game. He has given just one red card, an average of 0.125 per game. While it is his first time taking charge of a Celtic game, he has twice officiated Rangers in European competition, against Benfica and Lyon in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Petrescu will be assisted fellow countrymen Radu Ghinguleac Mircea Mihail Grigoriu, with Andrei Chivulete appointed as the fourth official. On VAR duties it will be Italian official Michael Fabbri, and he will be assisted by Marcel Birsan. Sign up to The Scotsman’s daily football newsletter to get unrivalled Scottish football news and analysis – subscribe for free here.