Yesterday, Celtic easily beat Kilmarnock to get three points in their first game of the new Scottish Premiership season.
The Bhoys are currently at the top of the table thanks to a great showing at home. It was a great day for the fans after Jim Craig raised the league flag in front of the Parkhead crowd.
While Brendan Rodgers tells his team to focus on one game at a time, fans will have to imagine what more could be. However, as starts go, the Irishman’s team couldn’t have done much better.
People in Glasgow’s east end didn’t have many big complaints about the game on Sunday afternoon. However, there were strong calls for a Celtic penalty in the dying minutes after Kyogo Furuhashi was taken down by Ross McCrorie when he was through on goal, as you can see below.
There has been a lot of talk about what happened. Since then, Michael Stewart and Mark Wilson have both agreed on what happened after Celtic’s comfortable win.
Sean Michael Stewart and Mark Wilson talk about Celtic’s free kick claim
Stewart told Sportscene before the game, “It was, it’s such a close one and thinking maybe it was offside, there was a little bit of a delay in time.”
“If you watch it in real time, there’s a difference between this one and the one we saw in the first half, where Kyogo hit it past McCrorie and it looked like it might be cleared away. This is the same difference you’ll see in the Dundee Derby as well.”
“That’s a foul on me, Kyogo could get that once he knocks it past McCrorie, and then it’s a chance to score.” That looks like a penalty kick to me. He wasn’t completely knocked out; it was more of a bump. But I still think that should have been a penalty.
Wilson later said, “It’s a stonewall penalty; if it’s anywhere else on the field, it’s a foul, which it definitely was. I think Mayo may have played him offside if you look at Mayo’s foot creeping in, so for me it’s a penalty.”
Even though Celtic won, their penalty claim should be talked about.
Yes, it is tiring to talk about decisions that went one way or another after the fact, especially since the important fact is that Celtic beat Kilmarnock easily at Parkhead.
Still, if the game had been tied at 0-0, for example, the result of the decision would have been given a lot more attention, so it is worth wondering why VAR didn’t think there was enough to step in.
No one is even saying that the choice would have been final, but it might have been easier to see if Furuhashi was on board if they had looked into it more. From the view given, it looks like it is, well, very tight.
In any case, yesterday was a fun day as Celtic kicked off the league season with a bang. When the Bhoys go to Hibernian this Sunday, they will need more of the same.
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