Strange decisions- Rodgers hits out as Celtic pay the price

Brendan Rodgers highlighted the strange decisions that you see in Europe following Celtic’s 2-1 Champions League defeat at home to Lazio.

Two very marginal decisions went against the home side with VAR ruling out a ‘goal’ from Luis Palma while the width of a football boot was good enough to confirm that Pedro was onside when he headed in the 95th minute winner.

That was tough luck, hard to take but comes into the fine margins category but there were three incidents that were looked incredibly leniently by referee Donatas Rumsas with VAR opting out of getting involved.

The big one occurred early in the first half when Elsaid Hysaj jostled with Reo Hatate with the incident ending when the Lazio defender swung his fist into Hatate’s face.

A foul was given but no card was shown, there appeared to be no VAR review with the cast set for the Italian side to throw their weight about.

Picking up on Rodgers’ post-match interview on TNT discussing certain refereeing decisions, the Daily Record reports the Celtic boss saying:

Not so good. There’s a lot you see in Europe now it’s a little bit more precious even than the domestic game. I watched the Champions League games on Tuesday night and there were some strange decisions to be honest but I’ll focus more on the performance which merited something from the game which we didn’t quite get. But we’ll fight another day.

Controlling the ball out wide in the second half Matt O’Riley was subjected to a head high challenge that didn’t even result in a free-kick.

Fifteen minutes from the final whistle Taty Castellanos was booked after he attempted a shot at goal that saw his boot crash into Cameron Carter-Vickers forehead, there was instantly a red mark on the Celtic defender where contact was made.

After losing their opening two matches Rodgers has to get something from the home match against Atletico Madrid on October 24 otherwise his squad will be left detached as they prepare for trips to Spain and Italy.