Alekszej Nyikolajev was born on the 1st August 1971. He has been officiating international matches for five years, and is considered one of the most talented Russian referee's. He has taken control of several big matches in the past, which involved club's such as Galatasaray, Hamburg, Aston Villa, Atlético Madrid, Dortmund, Chelsea, Bayern München.

He has yet to officiate a game with a Hungarian team, but did referee our opponents, Slovan Bratislava, back on the 26th August 2010, when they played away in Stuttgart. The German side won the first match 1-0, with the return leg ending in a 2-2 draw.

Alekszej Nyikolajev will be assisted by Ilja Barisnyikov and Anton Averjanov, with the fourth official being Eduard Malij.