Soccer Football - Champions League - Group E - Celtic v Atletico Madrid - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - October 25, 2023 Celtic's Luis Palma celebrates scoring their second goal REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Eight points clear. Sure, Ibrox has its game in hand but that’s the lead we wanted and needed and the one that sends us into next weekend in really good shape. Ibrox plays first; they have Livingston away, and then we have Aberdeen at home.
I’d say that should be a tough fixture for them; it won’t be. But we can restore that eight-point lead later in the afternoon.
Sandwiched between those games, of course, is a trip to Madrid, a big trip, the sort of trip that saw the boss ring those changes today.
And in the end it’s made no difference; we’ve still won that game today with some room to spare. Two of the goals were beauties. Two came from the alleged “fringe players.” All were scored by midfielders.
But today was as much about VAR as anything else. We’ll get to it.
Let’s talk about the two beautiful goals first, the opener from Turnbull and that screamer of a second from Palma.
David Turnbull got his late at the end of the first half, with what was almost the last kick of the ball. Palma’s is a true classic, a goal of the season contender, a wonderful sweeping shot from outside the box. He assisted Forrest’s third.
Incredible stats. 16 shots on target today.
Their keeper was easily the man of the match. People will talk about their defending, but we blew them away in our attacking football.
And although we’ve won the game by three … oh man, we had the ball in the net five times today and I do not know what the first two were chopped off except that someone called Dallas was in the VAR room.
The first goal is chopped off by the ref. Sure. But VAR’s verdict should have overturned that nonsensical call. The offside decision is laughable.
They’ve actually had to use the frame after the ball is played to justify that, which is a joke. That’s not an accident. That’s deliberate. You can look at that frame and see clearly that it’s the wrong one; Celtic fans from all across the internet have identified that “error” and yet industry professionals didn’t see it?
That’s simply not credible to me, not even close.
Elidh Barbour made the ludicrous claim on Sky that the red card ended the game. What a daft comment. We were ten minutes into the match.
I’ll tell you what would have ended the game, had the vicious elbowing incident on Oh a short time later been given as a red card, which it richly deserved. VAR officials didn’t think that was.
There’s no excuse for some of those decisions today, none, and the ref himself was an embarrassment in not giving the red card right off the bat for what clearly a studs up challenge with no effort to win the ball.
Some of his other decisions were ludicrous; one where he penalised Bernardo for going in to assist Oh, who was on the deck with a bunch of Ross County players around him with one clearly pressing down on him, was actually laugh out loud in how brazenly bad it was. On a day of stinking decisions that one actually did strike the funny bone.
I loved Malky Mackay’s contention that he was “proud” of his players having been absolutely pinned in their own box for virtually the whole game.
It sums up exactly what I said the other week; a lot of these managers are just happy not to get done. It’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough and I don’t know how any one of them can claim to be happy after that.
I think we saw some of the worst officiating of the season today. And there was another incident which isn’t going to be talked about much, one I’ve seen on social media but which the mainstream press hasn’t bothered to highlight, and none of them will; Cameron Carter Vickers having his jersey pulled at a corner kick.
Clear penalty, right? Has to be. Because we’ve been hearing it all week to justify Ibrox’s late penalty last weekend.
But what did we say at the time?
You see it every week, in almost every game. Only they would have got that. Only they would ever get that. I’ve saw it a hundred times and can count on one hand how many times it has been penalised.
Regardless of it all – not that we’re done dissecting some of this – that was a big, well earned, and well deserved three points.
The so-called “fringe players” did well, with big Oh being robbed of his second goal in two games by that diabolical decision.
It was great to see Turnbull his second in subsequent games and to see Forrest, The Famous Name, doing his stuff … but that goal from Palma, we’ll watch that over and over and over again. It is a masterpiece.
That he also got an assist for Forrest’s goal confirms this guy as a special, special footballer and a growing fan favourite.
The pull on the shirt they got last week
The pull on the shirt on Oh today that didn’t even get checked
That is outrageous man
Why will our club not call this out ?
Radio clyde pundits waxing lyrical about James Forrest today. They said he’s better than davie cooper ever was. HH
What about the free kick in to the wall and it hits the players head, Celtic have the ball, the ref stops the game because the player stays down, but the A -hole gives Ross County an uncontested drop ball BIZARRE. Scales elbow to the face looked a sending off to, the same bampot on VAR that gave newco 4 penalties in 1 game. I’m surprised that I’ve still got hair.
Oh had his jersey pulled as well, while he was in the act of shooting, no pen obvs. Getting fucking sick of this.
It’s surely time NOW for our board to speak up loud and clear ,about the amount of dubious decisions made against our team in EVERY game in bonnie little SEVCOLAND.
Asa said before on this site,, the league possitions are being artifiacly doped for a better word,,to keep certain sides were they are, as for refs, var it’s becoming beyond a joke,, how anybody can look at that game today and say itl even its self out over season is part of the are being part of the problem,, not many looking for solution,it needs an overhaul, especially operators, and the clowns that defend them
And tomorrow if the scum are struggling against dirty fearts you know I know everyone in Scotland knows bigot officials will cheat to assist them and know doubt thug Naismith will whinge about it but except it because his a nother dirty hun . Any fearts support is wasting there time there is less than0%chance of them getting a result
Great tae get the result and against obvious selective blindness by the officials. One thing tho, ah already this week, commented on the media ignorin sectarian singin from the ibrox support and yet there today, we heard our own support singin the ‘roamin in the gloamin’ garbage. Whit the fuck’s the point in any of us accusin the other side, when backward halfwits in our own support continue tae come away with this embarrassin tripe. Why don’t these ignorant bastards just fuck off and take their idiotic songs with them.
I still say to this day the worst one of the lot was the first time var was available and the handball at tynecastle was ignored. The celtic board let every fan down that day and it has been all downhill ever since.
Spot on
fully agree kevan……these people are useless fukwits who do ZERO for celtic.
I fucking DETEST that dirge. It’s the WORST song of the lot of them bar none.
When is our Board going to call out the ‘inconsistencies’ with VAR?
If the Board lets it be known – via unofficals channels, as is their norm –
that theyare ‘making noises in the background’,
then I simply wouldn’t believe that – at all.
The Board did f*** all about all the nonsense / cheating around RFC/sevco,
and the Board/PL did nothing about Resolution 12.
…but they’ll throw a wobbly – and very publicly – about flags! 🙁
Agree with all the above comments though I didn’t watch the game or listen on radio, as went to watch the local juniors. Wet, windy and freezing but highly entertaining and I thought the ref had a storming good game, better I’d say than the drivel you guys are saying about our so called top official today.
It must be absolutely devastating for VAR specialists like the purely impartial Dallas that even with his best effort he can’t replicate his dad’s success in this area.
Agree with as stated that, if as you guys say is correct – no reason to misjudge your reasoning at all, the Celtic board need to get an objection to SPFL and SFA about the perceived imbalance or haha honest mistakes by refs and VAR decision making. Also the Celtic board need to produce an open statement mainly aimed at the press, radio and media regarding the lack of objectivity in what is chosen to highlight in reporting and viewing and that they, like us, are helping the people in authority mask another big lie. They won’t perhaps go that far but they could raise the obvious concerns about their performances and not forgetting to remind them that it is within our power to prevent them attending our press/media meetings.
Further agree Kevan that it seems highly hypocritical for us to call out sectarianism when we have that vocalised through songs, etc, from our own support.
Non the less well done Bhoys on what sounds like a good away performance and result against those that wish to prevent us. Shame that we have to win convincingly to keep batting their efforts off but then we’ve been doing that well in general and luckily the other mob they support are such a bag of shite that we are enabled to do so. God forbid they manage to get a team under Clement Fraud that can close the gap to a point whereby the refs and VAR decision makers are able to make serious impact on the outcome of the league and cups. Looks like I’m gonna have to watch the carefully selected minimal minutes programme on the BBC to try to evidence the above comments. Speak out Celtic. HH
After wittnesing what took place at Ibrox last week it was nothing short of embarrassing. It was plain cheating for all of Scotland to see. They got their mandatory penalty and then this VAR which I don’t like because this gives them another opportunity to abuse it. They put nearly 10 minutes on the clock, enough time to get the winner then blow the whistle but you know what….you knew it was coming. With minutes left on the clock you just knew they would do what was nessicary to give them the result and that’s just what they did. It worries me though because Celtic are going to have to win any future Rangers fixtures with plenty to spare because any tight decisions are going to go their way. Celtic will need to be squeaky clean in their on box and stay clear of bookings. Its pretty obvious anything going their going to get it. Ill say it again, what took place in Govan last week was there for all to see. It was nothing sort of embarrassing