Konrad Plautz of Austria will make his second appearance of the season at Anfield when we face Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final.


It will also be the second time in charge of a Chelsea game this season, only in February he was in Greece for their 0-0 draw against Olympiacos in the first leg of the 1st round.

The 43-year old toolmaker from the Alpine town of Navis,Austria has been referring in the top flight of Austrian football since 1991 after serving two seasons as a linesman.

In 1996 he was promoted to the FIFA ranks of refereeing and has been in the top 30 European officials list since 2000. Despite such a high ranking status he missed out on all the major international tournaments, however this summer both the assistants for this game and Konrad himself will represent Austria in this summers European Championships.

For memorable games he picks out Arsenal's Champions League match at Dinamo Kiev. He comments on uefa.com "In 2003, I refereed Dinamo Kyiv-Arsenal match in Kiev, in front of 80,000 spectators, and it was a sensational experience for me. It's important, though, that you focus on the field rather than the crowd on such occasions. And although you might be refereeing the stars, once the game starts, I try to look at the two teams as 'black against white'."

He is a veteran of the Champions League and this will be his eight season in the competition and is closing in on 30 games for the tournament. The game against Chelsea will equal the furthest he has got in the competition, which was two years when he refereed Arsenal's semi-final 1st leg win over Villareal at Highbury. Although he did referee this season Super Cup between AC Milan and Seville.

This will be his fifth time in charger of the reds. Back in October 2002 Michael Owen grabbed a hat-trick in Spartak Moscow. Three years later goals from Sinama-Pongolle and Luis Garcia saw us beat Real Betis 2-1 in Spain. Our luck changed later that season as Benfica won 1-0 in Portugal. His most recent Liverpool match was our 1-0 home defeat by Marseille back in October.

Two weeks ago he was in Portugal for Rangers' 2-0 win against Sporting in the UEFA Cup.

His assistants for the game are Egon Bereuter and Markus Mayr, the fourth official will be Thomas Einwaller.

Some memorable matches involving Austrian officials and Liverpool.

10th May 1973 (E.Linemayr) - 24 hours after the match was abandoned because of heavy rain, Liverpool defeat Borussia Moenchengladbach 3-0 in the first leg of the UEFA Cup Final at Anfield.

13th September 1978 (E.Linemayr) - Nottingham Forest beat Liverpool 2-0 in the first round of the European Cup at the City Ground.

7th March 1984 (H.Fahnler) - Ian Rush scores the only goal as we beat Benfica in the first leg of the European Cup quarter-final.

15th October 2003 (S.Messner) - Antony le Tallec opens up the scoring in a 3-0 second leg win against Olimpija Ljubljana in the second leg of the UEFA Cup first round.