Celtic’s draw at Rangers today is probably a result that if the Hoops fans were offered it prior to kick-off, they may have taken it.
But having taken an immediate lead in the first minute after Daizen Maeda brilliantly forced a mistake from James Tavernier and then to double that advantage after Matt O’Riley tucked away his penalty, the Celtic support may well feel that Brendan Rodgers‘ side missed a huge opportunity to take all three points from Ibrox this afternoon.
John Beaton‘s decision to overturn his original yellow card issued to Fabio Silva for diving to a penalty after a VAR review left many Celtic fans absolutely baffled and Chris Sutton enraged.
The former Celtic hero labelled the u-turn as ’embarrassing’ and now it’s the turn of BBC pundit, Michael Stewart, to take to social media and express his unhappiness at the SFA officials for influencing another result involving Celtic.
Rangers vs Celtic officiating labelled ‘disgraceful’
Michael Stewart is probably one of the most outspoken pundits in the media whenever it comes to the officiating in our game and after today’s Ibrox display, the BBC man left us all in no doubt what he thought of Beaton and his colleague’s performance today.
It really was a strange piece of backtracking by Beaton. Even Kenny Miller on Sky Sports co-commentary said the Rangers attacker dived and that seems to be the general consensus amongst all pundits.
Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, said Beaton was correct in his original decision to book Silva for simulation and, truth be told, the Irishman had every right to feel aggrieved about VAR intervening.
Because that was the turning point for the game. Had Celtic seen out some early second-half pressure from Rangers the Ibrox crowd would have put immense pressure on their side as their first-half booing proved just how unhappy they were with Philippe Clement’s team.
However, the draw keeps the title race firmly in Celtic’s hands and with the next Glasgow Derby at Paradise, the advantage is with Rodgers as long as they win the other five games remaining in the calendar.