' UEFA elite group referee '

UEFA elite group referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco will take charge of the crucial World Cup qualifier between Wales and Serbia at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday evening.

Wales v Serbia tonight

12/11/16

The Spanish referee is vastly experienced and has been a FIFA listed referee since 2004. He was also a referee at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa where he refereed three matches in total including Serbia’s 1-0 win against Germany in the group stages.

The 43-year-old has been in the middle for eight El Classico’s between Real Madrid and Barcelona and has also refereed the Copa del Rey final and the Spanish Super Cup final.

Wales have been refereed by Mallenco on one previous occasion. He was in the middle for Wales’ 2-0 defeat to Bosnia in 2015 which was the game where Wales sealed their Euro 2016 qualification.

So far this season, he has refereed five La Liga games, one Champions league game, one Europa League game and one World Cup qualifier. He was most recently in charge of Porto’s win against Club Brugge in the Champions League group stage.

Mallenco will be assisted by Spanish linesmen Roberto Díaz Pérez Del Palomar and Raúl Cabañero Martínez while the Fourth Official is fellow La Liga referee Carlos Clos Gomez who is also a UEFA second group referee.

Absolutely shocking ref. How he's an elite ref is beyond me. Every time a Serb fell over he blew, they got wise to it and were falling over the place and he bought it every time.

He was the worst ref I've seen in a while and judging by the reactions of the people sitting around me at the game last night, I wasn't alone in thinking that.

Absolutely shocking ref. How he's an elite ref is beyond me. Every time a Serb fell over he blew, they got wise to it and were falling over the place and he bought it every time.

He was the worst ref I've seen in a while and judging by the reactions of the people sitting around me at the game last night, I wasn't alone in thinking that.

Have to agree - he turned a blind eye to many of their offences and pretty much yellow carded any Wales player he could whether it was merited or not. That situation with Tanic was totally bizarre as one of our players was kicked in the head seconds before and nothing was given.

A very poor refereeing performance. Hopefully he will be marked down by the assessor.

If he's an elite referee football has got a problem

Horrendous performance from a ref, he had a mare.

Worst ref I have seen since a certain Mr. Glokner in 1976 at the Quarter Final game against Yugoslavia. He was certainly consistent. Consistently gave every challenge by Wales as a foul (and a yellow card for good measure) and consistently let everything go unpunished if it was committed by Serbia. Dread to think what he would have been like if the game was in Belgrade.

That ref was a throwback to unpredictable international refs of the past. Booking people for being famous (Bale) and had no control of the game. Dreadful.