Spanish referee José María Sánchez Martínez has been handed the task of officiating Saturday's hugely anticipated Nations League clash between Ireland and England.

It will be the third visit to the Aviva Stadium for the experienced man in the middle, who has plenty of international and European club competition games under his belt, as well as a host of top La Liga fixtures.

Already this season he has dished out yellow and red cards in games featuring Barcelona, Valencia, Real Sociedad and Sevilla.

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In total, he has flashed his yellow card 26 times and his red twice in four games so far this season.

When it comes to European club competitions, Martínez is no stranger to English clubs. In the past few seasons he has taken charge of games featuring West Ham (1-1 Bayer Leverkusen), Liverpool (5-1 Sparta Prague), Manchester City (3-1 Copenhagen), Brighton (1-0 Marseille), Manchester United (3-3 Galatasaray) and Newcastle (0-0 Milan).

But at international level, Irish fans might remember him from his two previous Aviva Stadium visits.

He was the man in the middle when the Boys in Green drew 1-1 with Serbia in September 2021.

And interestingly, prior to that he was fourth official when Ireland hosted Austria under Martin O'Neill in June 2017. That match also finished in a 1-1 draw.

That's not where the similarities end. In both of those matches, Ireland went behind in the first-half, only to equalise in the 85th (Jonathan Walters against Austria) and 86th minutes (Nikola Milenkovic own goal against Serbia).

So the moral of the story is, don't leave too early this evening if England are holding onto a one-goal lead.

A 1-1 draw would represent a strong start for new Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrímsson.

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