Neil Lennon has laughed off Neil McCann’s embarrassing comments about Odsonne Edouard’s penalty in the Scottish Cup Final win on Sunday. It was a tense game but Lennon’s side overcame the stubborn Edinburgh side in a penalty shoot-out. It was one penalty earlier on that grabbed the headlines when the French striker decided to panenka Craig Gordon in the Hearts net.
This prompted Neil McCann, who was being utilised by the BBC, to make some bizarre and bitter comments about the 22-year-old scoring.
Lennon, however, has responded to McCann’s comments, calling them nonsense and that the style of penalty has been around for years. As reported by the Daily Record, Lennon was less than impressed with criticism levelled at his star striker.
“What, you want me to caution Odsonne for scoring a penalty in a cup final? Come on.
“The Panenka has been around since 1976. I have seen great players doing it, I have seen Pirlo doing it against England.
“I don’t remember any of those individuals getting actually criticised or being called disrespectful. It’s just complete and utter nonsense.
“Listen, I have seen players blast it over the bar, I have seen players hit the post, I have seen players scuff it, I have seen players miss penalties. I have seen Odsonne miss a penalty this year already. I have seen goalies making good saves.
“That’s his way at that moment of assessing the situation and executing it, so he has my full blessing to do whatever he wants as long as it hits the net.
“You cannot ask anyone to warn a player after he has scored a really beautiful goal in a really important game in a cup final: Don’t do that again Odsonne, because some people think it’s disrespectful.”
The goal showed that Edouard was playing with confidence, even if he spurned a couple chances during the game. Hopefully he will be able to hit a purple patch starting in today’s game against Ross County.
Martin O’Neill was also sceptical of Edouard’s decision to execute a Panenka in a pressure situation, saying that he wouldn’t do it late in the game if Celtic were losing; although, the former PSG man did just that earlier this year versus Copenhagen.
