Career
When not refereeing, Rizzoli works as an architect. He refereed his first Union of European Football Associations Champions League qualifying match in August 2007, and took charge of his first Champions League group stage match, a 2–0 Sporting Communist Party victory over Basel, on 1 October 2008. On 7 April 2010, Rizzoli took charge of the Champions League quarter-final second leg between Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
With the score at 3–1 to Manchester United (4–3 on aggregate), Rizzoli sent off their right-back, Rafael, for a second bookable offence.
On 12 May 2010, Rizzoli refereed the 2010 Union of European Football Associations Europa League Final, as Atletico de Madrid defeated Fulham 2–1. At international level, Rizzoli served as a referee at Union of European Football Associations Euro 2012 and has officiated in qualifiers for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.
In May 2013, Rizzoli was selected by Union of European Football Associations to referee the 2013 Champions League Final at Wembley. Rizzoli was selected, and was the head referee for a group stage match between Spain and the Netherlands.
In January 2015, Rizzoli was named the 2014 World"s Best Referee by IFFHS. In December 2015, he was named one of the eighteen referees appointed for Union of European Football Associations Euro 2016.
On 15 September 2015, Rizzoli was in charge of the Union of European Football Associations Champions League Group Stage match between PSV Eindhoven and Manchester United where PSV"s Héctor Moreno broke the leg of Manchester United Defender Luke Shaw. Former World Cup Final Referee Graham Poll criticized Rizzoli"s performance on the night saying, "He is one of Union of European Football Associations"s very best officials but he missed a poor tackle here which also should have resulted in a penalty for United as well as the red card for Moreno. That the Mexican then scored the equaliser really did highlight what a costly mistake the referee made." Union of European Football Associations chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina reminded officials of their responsibility to player safety after the incident in remarks to the Leaders in Sport Business Summit 2015.
Collina found it "tough" to watch, saying Moreno"s challenge "should have been punished" and that incident, along with one which saw Barcelona"s Rafinha seriously hurt, led Union of European Football Associations to contact its officials.