Celtic were forced to settle for a hard-earned point in Italy after finishing much of their clash with Bologna last night a man short, with post-match attention centring on Reo Hatate’s controversial dismissal…
Martin O’Neill voiced his frustration over the decision that led to Hatate receiving a second yellow card, describing the incident as ‘innocuous.’
Hatate had earlier given the Hoops a 1-0 lead after a terrible mistake from Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski, but his quick pair of cautions shifted the momentum firmly in the hosts’ favour.
Celtic made it 2-0 when Auston Trusty found the net shortly before the interval from an excellent Kieran Tierney delivery, yet Bologna responded strongly after the break with two goals to level the contest.
Under sustained pressure in the closing stages, O’Neill’s men defended resolutely to preserve the draw.
While the result earned Celtic a valuable away point, debate over Hatate’s sending-off dominated the aftermath.
Speaking via Celtic TV, O’Neill said: “I’ve seen it back, which I didn’t see at the time. I thought it was really innocuous. I still think it is. I don’t think that Reo meant to foul him. I think he was being held back to begin with, and he swings round a little bit petulant in that sense, but that wasn’t the reason for it. It was actually stamping on the lad’s foot. I think it was completely accidental.”
“However, I think really when you’ve just been booked before that, you should stay out of it because the ball looks as if it was going to go out of play, never mind anything else. It is incredibly frustrating. Young Reo apologised profusely to us all, but it is fine.”
O’Neill added: “At the end of it all, if we’d had him for the rest of the game until they got really tired, I think we would have won.”
Reflecting on his side’s performance, the 73 year-old said: “What we’ve done tonight, it would have been a real shame if we had lost the game. The players were really out on their feet in the last 10 minutes, but they kept going.”
“Now what it does for us, the point at least takes it into the final game, which is a week today. I can’t really think about that now. What we’ve done is just given ourselves a bit of hope.”
Celtic now turn their attention to Sunday’s huge Scottish Premiership encounter at Tynecastle.
Conor Spence
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