Referee Kevin Clancy and his VAR team may have made a huge mistake in the most recent Celtic game after not awarding a possible penalty.
What’s the latest on VAR and Celtic?
There was plenty of drama to talk about in the Scottish Premiership over the weekend as the Bhoys played host to their most bitter rivals Rangers.
The home side managed to come away with all three points in a thrilling encounter that finished 3-2 in Celtic’s favour thanks to two goals from Kyogo Furuhashi and one from Jota, despite James Tavernier’s brace.
The away team did actually have the ball in the net first when Alfredo Morelos fired in from a corner, but this goal was controversially ruled out for a foul on Alistair Johnston.
But while that decision went against Rangers, another big call went against Ange Postecoglou and co later on in the game. Indeed, as seen in this footage shared on Twitter, Celtic were pretty unlucky not to get a penalty for a possible foul on Oh Hyeon-gyu.
Was it a foul on Celtic’s Oh Hyeon-gyu?
As you can see in the clip above, Oh races into the box and is then clumsily brought to the ground as John Souttar appears to give him a bit of a shove in the back.
Whenever you put your palm on a player to push him down in the box, you always run the risk of giving away a penalty and the Rangers man can count himself fairly fortunate it wasn’t spotted by referee Clancy and VAR didn’t intervene either.
With Connor Goldson out of the Old Firm, Souttar was actually making his first start for the Teddy Bears in eight months, so perhaps it’s understandable if he was a little rusty with this challenge – and that lack of regular minutes certainly could be blamed for his poor pass that allowed Jota in to score Celtic’s third of the game.
In the end, the Bhoys didn’t need to rely on a penalty to get themselves a win that keeps them 12 points clear at the very top of the SPFL table.
Had Rangers successfully fought their way back into the match, however, this controversial moment – which happened with about ten minutes left to play – could have been an even bigger talking point this week.
