Brendan Rodgers has spoken out about the X-rated challenge by Ryan Bowman that left Fabio Cardosa with a broken nose at Hampden.
Sunday’s Betfred Cup semi-final between Sevco and Motherwell had it’s fair share of full blooded challenges with a few crossing the border.
Earlier this year Bowman was involved in brutal foul on Kieran Tierney that left a gash on the defenders knee but only warranted a booking from referee Don Robertson.
The match officials at both semi-finals made major mistakes even though it has been accepted that the better team in each match made it through to next month’s final.
Cardosa was pictured on social media with a badly broken nose with Rodgers concerned that those type of challenges are going unpunished.
“There was a couple of decisions yesterday that would’ve worried me,” the Celtic boss told the Daily Record. “I thought the authority from the officials in the game was poor.
“You play in that level of game, I could see why Pedro was probably annoyed.
“There was a couple of incidents there that went unpunished. You maybe would’ve got away with that in the 80s, but certainly not now. It certainly shouldn’t have been the case.
“I have seen the player involved in the incidents, in similar incidents. I saw an incident with Kieran Tierney at Parkhead last season that went unpunished.
“We all want our team to be aggressive and committed but there is a line and that is up to the officials to see that and act accordingly.
“You want a physical game but you also want officials to stamp out anything that goes beyond that and I felt yesterday lacked authority in terms of officiating.”
It’s unclear whether the SFA Compliance Officer will act upon any incidents from Hampden which could result in punishments for Bowman and fellow striker Louis Moult.
