A night to forget for the Celtic boys against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, with many, many things going wrong.
Martin Dowden has shared that Brendan Rodgers was ‘absolutely furious’ when Daizen Maeda was shown a red card for a tackle on Mario Hermoso early in the first half.
The BBC reporter claimed that the Celtic boss was ‘pointing at Diego Simeone’ because he feels those in the Atletico Madrid technical area ‘influenced’ the referee’s call, as he told BBC Sport.
At first, a yellow card was dished out to Daizen Maeda, before VAR advised the on-field referee, Ivan Kruzliak, to have a look at his monitor, where he changed his call from a yellow to a red card.
At that time, Celtic were still in the game, showing early promising signs, even though Antoine Griezmann had put them 1-0 up inside 6 minutes.
But with that disadvantage for the Bhoys, things went from potentially worrying to well and truly forgettable, as Atletico Madrid ended up netting six – Ally McCoist slammed Diego Simeone after the game.
Daizen Maeda’s red card
“Brendan Rodgers is absolutely furious at this,” said Dowden. “He raced out of his technical area pointing at Diego Simone as the referee headed to check the VAR monitor.
“He clearly feels the Atletico bench have influenced that decision by their reaction.”
A reaction is needed
The lack of competitive nature in the Champions League is proving to be frustrating. This isn’t just about last night, but what has happened from matchday 1.
As of this moment, Celtic can’t do much other than react and put up three points at the weekend.
After reaching the Scottish League Cup Final, the rejuvenated Aberdeen will visit Parkhead on Sunday looking to cause an upset and take advantage of Celtic’s midweek situation.
But it also needs to be remembered that Aberdeen themselves are in European action because they will be in Greece on Thursday night to take on PAOK, so their own mood and confidence might be on the floor.
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