UEFA has named João Pinheiro to referee Bayern Munich's Champions League semifinal second leg against Paris Saint-Germain. The 38-year-old Portuguese official will take charge of one of the season's biggest matches after another full campaign across UEFA competition.
Pinheiro is in his fourth Champions League season and has already handled 49 UEFA club competition matches, including 21 in the competition itself. He has been an international referee since 2016 and has officiated five knockout stage matches in the 2024-25 season alone. His appointment for Bayern and PSG adds to a schedule that has already taken him through the league phase, the playoffs and deep into the spring.
This is not his first time around either club. He was the fourth official in last year's Champions League final between PSG and Inter in Munich, and he has already refereed Bayern twice this season. In January, he was in charge of Bayern's 2-1 win at PSV Eindhoven, when Harry Kane scored a late winner, seven PSV players were booked, Mauro Júnior was sent off for a second booking and Vincent Kompany was cautioned for contesting a decision. He also handled Bayern's final league game of the competition, a 3-1 home win over Slovan Bratislava.
Pinheiro's work in this season's Champions League has been busy and often decisive. He oversaw five league stage games and the playoff ties between Olympiacos and Bayer Leverkusen and Juventus and Galatasaray. Across the competition, he has shown 52 yellow cards, sent off two players — PSV's Mauro Júnior and Juventus' Lloyd Kelly — and awarded two penalties, both of them for Aston Villa and Juventus.
There is a familiarity to this assignment, and not only because he has already worked around both clubs. Bayern have seen him manage a tense away win and a routine home victory this season, while PSG have already had him on the biggest stage in Munich. UEFA's choice points to a referee it trusts in high-pressure knockout matches, with Bruno Jesus and Luciano Maia on the lines, Espen Eskas as fourth official, and Marco Di Bello supported by Tiago Martins in the VAR room.
That kind of profile matters at this stage. Pinheiro has built enough UEFA experience to know the pace, the pressure and the thin margins that can decide a semifinal, and both clubs have already felt his presence this season. On a night when one decision can shape the tie, UEFA has put the game in the hands of a referee it has used often and recently.