The World Cup final is the biggest spectacle in football, but Jurgen Klopp may not want to be watching as Argentina face France on Sunday.
The Liverpool boss may have bad memories from the man in the middle, having previously had a run-in with the referee for the final. Polish official Szymon Marciniak has been handed the prestige job of taking charge of Sunday's game at the Lusail Stadium.
He will be a name familiar to Liverpool fans, having infamously clashed with Klopp during a defeat to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in 2020. The two sides met in the last 16 of the competition in the February of that year, with the first leg held in Spain.
A goal from Saul Niguez after just four minutes was enough for Atletico to claim a crucial first leg win. But it was the performance of Marciniak that left Klopp furious, with the Liverpool boss failing to hide his frustration.
The Polish official awarded 24 fouls in total and even booked Klopp for his demonstrations on the touchline. While Klopp admitted he deserved his booking, he insisted the referee had not been strong enough to deal with Atletico's notorious tricks.
“You need a really strong ref. So many things happened. They had three players on the ground for a little breath. Sadio Mane was targeted, that was clear. He played a good first half but all they wanted to do was get him a yellow card," Klopp fumed.
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That is why I took him off. But I deserved my yellow card. I deserved it. I was just shouting in the direction, no bad words, I was not swearing, I was just unhappy with the overall performance.
"And in that moment it finally came out and the ref didn’t like it too much. It was difficult for the referee to deal with the atmosphere."
Despite that run-in, Marciniak has since refereed Liverpool, the most recent being their semi-final win over Villarreal last season. He was also in charge for Real Madrid's famous win over Chelsea in last season's quarter-finals, when Los Blancos completed a famous comeback.
He has already taken charge of both Argentina and France so far this tournament. He had the whistle for Les Bleus' win over Denmark in the group stages before then officiating Argentina's win over Australia in the last 16.
Marciniak will be the first-ever Pole to referee a World Cup final and his assistants will be compatriots Paweł Sokolnicki and Tomasz Listkiewicz. As well as being football's biggest match, it is also likely to be the final World Cup outing for superstar Lionel Messi.
“Surely yes. There are many years for the next one and I don’t think I will be able to do that and ending this way is the best. The important thing is to be able to achieve the group objective, which is the most beautiful of all," Messi said.
“We are one step away after fighting a lot and we are going to try to give our best as up to now, to try to make it happen this time.”
