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Daniele Orsato will officiate England's opening group stage match against Serbia (Image: GETTY)
The referee taking charge of England's game against Serbia was once reduced to tears on the pitch and left Luka Modric furious at the last World Cup. Daniele Orsato, who will have the whistle on Sunday, is expected to retire at the end of Euro 2024 after 18 years as a top-level referee.
Orsato became a FIFA-listed referee in 2010 and has officiated matches in Serie A alongside his European and international commitments. His career highlight came in 2020, when he refereed the Champions League final between PSG and Bayern Munich.
He was later named the best referee of that calendar year by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS). The Italian has officiated at two World Cups and was among the group of referees selected to take charge of matches at Euro 2020.
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Orsato refereed this year's semi-final involving Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, which was his last Champions League match. He was clearly emotional after the game and burst into tears upon blowing the final whistle before he was comforted by his assistant referees.
The 48-year-old took charge of his final Serie A match a few weeks later, receiving a guard of honour from Atalanta and Fiorentina players on his way out of the tunnel.
Orsato is widely regarded as one of the best referees of his generation but has occasionally rubbed players up the wrong way. He was heavily criticised for his performance in the World Cup semi-final between Croatia and Argentina in 2022, with Modric branding him 'one of the worst' after awarding the penalty that saw Lionel Messi open the scoring.
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Modric did not hold back in his assessment of Orsato's display in his post-match interview, saying: "I can’t believe that penalty was awarded. There is no foul on the penalty because he shoots and will definitely collide with our goalkeeper because of that. It is clear that it changed the game a lot.
"I don’t usually talk about referees, but today it’s impossible not to do so. [Orsato] is one of the worst I know and I’m not talking only about today, because I met him before and never had a good memory of him. He’s a disaster.
"I want to congratulate Argentina, I don’t want to take credit away from them. They deserve to be in the final, but that first penalty wasn’t a penalty and it destroyed us."
