Netherlands vs Germany Referee: Alejandro Hernández Hernández, Stats and VAR Team

Spanish referee Alejandro Hernández Hernández will take charge of the Netherlands against Germany in one of the headline fixtures of the opening night of the 2026/27 UEFA Nations League.

The League A Group 2 match takes place at the Johan Cruijff ArenA in Amsterdam on Thursday, September 24, with kick-off scheduled for 20:45 local time. UEFA lists Hernández Hernández as the referee, supported by an entirely Spanish officiating crew.

It is a significant assignment for the 43-year-old. Hernández Hernández arrives with more than a decade of La Liga experience, a long international career and a recent World Cup appearance. This will be his third senior Netherlands match, but his first involving Germany’s senior national team.

Netherlands vs Germany match officials

UEFA has confirmed the following team for the match:

UEFA referee observer Domenico Messina of Italy has also been assigned to the match, while Philippe Prudhon of France is the UEFA delegate.

The presence of Carlos del Cerro Grande on VAR duty is particularly notable. UEFA has therefore placed an experienced Spanish video official behind Hernández Hernández for a fixture where penalty-area incidents, possible red-card situations and tight offside decisions could quickly become important.

Who is Alejandro Hernández Hernández?

Alejandro José Hernández Hernández was born on November 10, 1982 and comes from Lanzarote in Spain’s Canary Islands.

He made his Spanish top-flight debut in August 2012 and has been a FIFA-listed referee since 2014, giving him more than a decade of experience at international level.

His UEFA résumé includes Champions League assignments, international matches and major appointments in supporting roles. Earlier in 2026, UEFA selected Hernández Hernández as the fourth official for the Europa League final between Freiburg and Aston Villa.

He was also part of the referee group at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, taking charge of Brazil’s 3-0 group-stage victory over Haiti. That gives UEFA a referee accustomed to high-profile environments for one of the most demanding fixtures of Nations League Matchday 1.

Hernández Hernández referee statistics

The numbers are worth examining because Hernández Hernández has been relatively active with disciplinary sanctions. In the 2025/26 La Liga season, Transfermarkt’s referee database records:

Those figures show that Hernández Hernández was not reluctant to use disciplinary sanctions in Spain last season. His 102 yellows across 19 league appointments worked out at more than five cautions per game.

The trend has continued in the opening weeks of 2026/27. BeSoccer’s current-season database records five matches, combining three La Liga appointments with two Champions League qualifying matches. Across those games Hernández Hernández has shown 28 yellow cards and three red cards, an average of 5.6 yellows per match. The same dataset records five penalties across those assignments.

That is still a very small early-season sample and should not be treated as a prediction for Netherlands vs Germany. It does, however, reinforce the point that Hernández Hernández has been prepared to sanction misconduct rather than manage every incident exclusively through verbal warnings.

His Nations League record

Hernández Hernández is also familiar with this competition. WorldFootball’s referee records list five previous UEFA Nations League matches for the Spaniard across League A and League B.

Those matches produced 18 yellow cards and one sending-off, giving him an average of approximately 3.6 yellow cards per game in the competition. That figure is lower than his recent La Liga rate, a useful reminder that referee statistics are heavily influenced by the type of match, teams involved and competition.

International football can produce a very different refereeing profile from domestic league matches.

Hernández Hernández’s record with the Netherlands

The Netherlands have encountered Hernández Hernández twice before at senior level. The first came in the 2022/23 Nations League, when he refereed Poland against the Netherlands in Warsaw on September 22, 2022.

The Netherlands won 2-0, with Cody Gakpo and Steven Bergwijn scoring. UEFA’s match documentation confirms that Hernández Hernández worked that game with José Naranjo and Diego Sánchez Rojo, the same two assistants who will be alongside him in Amsterdam tonight.

His second Netherlands match was considerably more dramatic. Hernández Hernández refereed Greece 0-1 Netherlands in Euro 2024 qualifying on October 16, 2023. The Netherlands were awarded two penalties. Wout Weghorst failed to convert the first, before Virgil van Dijk scored a second penalty in stoppage time to secure the victory.

His senior Netherlands record stands at two matches, two Netherlands victories and two clean sheets. That record is historical context rather than evidence of how Thursday’s match will be refereed.

First senior Germany match for Hernández Hernández

There is no equivalent history with Germany. According to Spanish reports ahead of the fixture, this will be Hernández Hernández’s first match refereeing Germany’s senior national team. He has previously handled German youth internationals, but not the senior side.

That makes the Amsterdam appointment an unusual combination: considerable familiarity with the Netherlands, but a first senior Germany assignment.

What should we expect from the referee?

The statistical profile makes one thing clear: Hernández Hernández is not a referee whose recent numbers point towards an unusually high tolerance for misconduct.

His 5.37-yellow average in La Liga last season and 5.6-yellow average across his first five club assignments of 2026/27 suggest players cannot assume repeated tactical fouls or confrontational behaviour will go without disciplinary consequences.

But card averages need context. A referee does not enter a match with a predetermined number of cautions to issue. The intensity of the contest, player behaviour, tactical fouling and the temperature of individual confrontations will determine where Hernández Hernández sets his disciplinary threshold.

For Netherlands against Germany, transition fouls could be particularly important. Fast attacking breaks frequently create the type of holding, blocking and late challenges where a referee must decide whether a foul alone is sufficient or whether the action also stops a promising attack.

Penalty-area contact will be another area worth watching. Hernández Hernández’s recent domestic numbers include a notable number of penalty awards, while his last Netherlands appointment featured two penalties for Oranje. That does not make another penalty more likely tonight, but it makes his interpretation of contact inside the area an obvious point of interest.

Carlos del Cerro Grande on VAR

Hernández Hernández will not be making every major decision alone. Carlos del Cerro Grande will operate as VAR, with Javier Iglesias Villanueva assisting him.

Under the VAR protocol, the video team should intervene only for a clear and obvious error or serious missed incident in the four reviewable categories: goals, penalties, direct red cards and mistaken identity.

That distinction will matter if tonight produces one of the marginal penalty or red-card situations that often dominate post-match discussion. A debatable decision is not automatically a VAR error. The key question is whether Hernández Hernández’s original decision falls outside the range that can reasonably be supported by the available evidence.

An experienced appointment for a major Nations League opener

Netherlands against Germany is one of UEFA’s marquee fixtures on the opening Nations League matchday, and the refereeing appointment reflects that status.

Hernández Hernández brings extensive La Liga experience, Champions League appointments, a 2026 World Cup appearance and more than a decade as an international referee.

His recent numbers also give the match an interesting refereeing angle. Five-plus yellow cards per game in recent Spanish league seasons, several early-season red cards and a relatively high number of penalty decisions mean his disciplinary and penalty-area management will be worth following closely.

The previous history with the Netherlands adds another layer. Oranje have won both senior internationals he has refereed, including the dramatic 2023 victory over Greece that featured two Dutch penalties. For Germany, meanwhile, tonight represents completely new territory with Hernández Hernández in the middle.

The VAR Verdict will follow the major refereeing and VAR decisions from Netherlands vs Germany and analyse any controversial incidents after the final whistle.