UEFA has announced a Norwegian referee and Dutch VAR for West Ham’s Europa Conference League last 16 first leg clash in Larnaca.
West Ham are looking to put the dismal 4-0 defeat to Brighton behind them as they play for a place in the Conference League quarter-finals over the next week.
The Hammers will face Cypriot side AEK Larnaca over two legs, starting this Thursday afternoon.
West Ham fans have already started arriving in Cyprus while the team will be heading out on Wednesday for the first part of their 5,000-mile round trip.
Larnaca are second in the Cypriot First Division and have only lost five of their 26 league matches this season.
But West Ham will be clear favourites for the tie with the second leg at the London Stadium next Thursday (March 16th).
Although Larnaca are one of the Europa League dropouts, West Ham should have enough to get the job done – on paper at least.
West Ham are well used to VAR by now. But up to this point it has not been used in Europe’s third tier competition.
The Hammers had bad experiences with referees in the Europa League knockout rounds last season against both Lyon and Eintracht Frankfurt.
UEFA announce Norwegian referee and Dutch VAR for West Ham Europa Conference League last 16 first leg clash in Larnaca
Declan Rice and David Moyes both received bans for hitting out at the officials during that semi-final defeat to Frankfurt.
Now UEFA has announced a Norwegian referee and Dutch VAR for West Ham’s Europa Conference League last 16 first leg clash in Larnaca.
The 34-year-old Espen Eskas will take charge of the game with fellow Norwegians Jan Erik Engan and Isaak Elias Bashevkin running the line while Kristoffer Hagenes is the fourth official.
UEFA has confirmed VAR will be in use for the knockout stages with Dutchman Rob Dieperink on duty with Jeroen Manschot as his assistant.
Larnaca vs West Ham kicks off at 5.45pm UK time and will be live on BT Sport.