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Topics: Celtic, Brendan Rodgers, UEFA, VAR, Europa League, Football
Luke Davies
Topics: Celtic, Brendan Rodgers, UEFA, VAR, Europa League, Football
Celtic head coach Brendan Rodgers has made a request to UEFA after he felt his side saw a goal wrongly ruled out during their Europa League league phase clash against Braga.
The Scottish champions were caught by surprise by the Portuguese visitors at Celtic Park on Thursday, with the away side opening the scoring thanks to Ricardo Horta’s long-range effort on 20 minutes – although experienced goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel ought to have done better.
Rodgers’ side thought they had levelled things early in the second half when Kelechi Iheanacho latched onto a loose pass before finishing past Lukas Hornicek to the delight of the Celtic crowd.
But fans, staff, players and pundits were left perplexed when VAR Christian Dingert advised referee Tobias Stieler to disallow the goal because of a handball despite the replays appearing to show that the ball did, in fact, strike the Nigerian forward in the face.
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A chorus of boos could be heard around Celtic Park as the strike was chalked off. And it went from bad to worse for Celtic when Braga doubled their lead through Gabri Martinez on 85 minutes, handing the Portugal-based outfit a 2-0 win.
After the match, Iheanacho branded the call “an awful decision” with Celtic teammate Sebastian Tounekti calling it “crazy”.
"To be fair, that was an awful decision from them," Iheanacho told Celtic TV shortly after full-time.
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"The ball didn't hit my hand, it hit my face. It was an awful decision.
"That changed the game. We could have been back in the game.”
The former Manchester City and Leicester forward then claimed that the referee “knows it wasn’t” handball despite the bizarre decision.
Meanwhile, Hoops boss Rodgers was equally stunned and has called on UEFA for an explanation.
“We are still waiting to hear what the reason was, and it was a pivotal moment in the game,” said Rodgers.
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“For the life of me, I don’t understand why it wasn’t given.
“It wasn’t even close to being a handball, and we are waiting on an explanation.
“I can’t understand why the referee isn’t asked to go and have a look at that.
“If you look at it once, twice, and I’m assuming the people in the VAR room have looked at it more than that, there’s absolutely no way it hits him there.”
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The defeat leaves Celtic 28th in the 36-team league phase, having earlier lost against Crvena Zvezda on game week one.
The Scottish champions will return to domestic action at home against Motherwell on Sunday.