Even Sky Sports initially reckoned that both VAR calls ruling out the first two Celtic opening goals were wrong, Oh being punished for simply challenging for a ball cost Liam Scales a perfectly valid goal before Oh celebrated his own opener before Andrew Dallas on VAR duties this afternoon, released images of the line showing Daizen Maeda millimetres offside only for Sky Sports to point out that within the image showing the lines the ball had spreading left Paulo Bernardo’s boot!
The broadcaster has now backtracked on the Maeda offside decision showing another image that they reckon shows that the Celtic winger was offside but it was the words spoken rather than any evidence available to the naked eye with that image that they’re going with.
On the first disallowed goal even Kris Boyd called out the mistake but by the second one was trying to joke about conspiracy theories and online polls appearing as a result of a second Andrew Dallas error.
The son of Hugh must have thought he’d seen off the Celtic threat in the first half before David Turnbull found the bottom corner to give Celtic a well deserved lead with five minutes of stoppages played.
The red card for Brown for an high tackle on Yang was clearcut with Kris Boyd talking about his surprise that the referee David Munro initially opted for the yellow, having the best possible view of the high tackle that clearly endangered an opponent.
Brendan Rodgers had one eye on Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night as he utilised the squad to keep as many legs as fresh as possible. Main-man Matt O’Riley remained an unused sub but will of course play in the Champions League match.
Celtic’s second came from a substitute Luis Palma with an even better strike than Turnbull’s and that was game over. Palma then turned provided for another sub, James Forrest whose powerful header from close range gave Celtic a 3-0 lead and meant that the veteran winger had now scored for Celtic for FIFTEEN consecutive seasons, a truly remarkable achievement.
Even Brendan Rodgers has questioned the two disallowed goals but pointed to the three excellent gaols Celtic did score that were given.
Man of the Match – David Turnbull
Matt Corr’s new book Majic, Stan and the King of Japan is out now and Neil Lennon, the Celtic captain that season, has written the foreword for us.
You can get a signed copy of the hardback version direct from Celtic Star Books by clicking on the image below. It’s also available an an e-book via Amazon Kindle and please note that all colour photographs that appear in the beautifully presented printed hardback book are also available in the Kindle version of Majic, Stan and the King of Japan…
