He will be assisted by assistants Octavian Shovre, Sebastian Gheorghe, Istvan Kovacs and Sebastian Koltsesku. The reserve judge is Radu Gingulyak. 

Ovidiu Hategan has been a championship of Romania ref since 2006 and has been selected for European competition since 2008. He is actually a doctor and graduated from the Medical University of Timisoara. 

Hategan has twice refereed the Russian national team, in 2011 against Serbia, ending in a 1-0 win for Russia and the 2017 2-0 defeat to the Ivory Coast.  He has also taken charge of Russian clubs in European competition on numerous occassions, including Spartak Moscow v St. Gallen (1-1), CSKA Moscow v Manchester City (1-2), Rubin v Atletico Madrid (0-1) and Locomotiv v Athletico Bilbao (2-1). 

Previously, the blue-white-sky blues achieved one victory and one draw in matches with referees from Romania. 

The first leg of the  UEFA Europa League last 16 will be held on 8 March and will start at 23:05 St. Petersburg time.