Chris Sutton delivers instant verdict as Celtic earn point vs Rangers; questions VAR

By John McGinley

January 2, 2023

Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton believes the Bhoys ‘got away with it’ against Rangers today, after Kyogo Furuhashi rescued a point from Ibrox with a late 2-2 equaliser.

Ange Postecoglou’s side were in control of the encounter for a large chunk of the first half after Daizen Maeda superbly finished just a few minutes in.

However, sloppy passing and mistakes crept into the performance and Rangers managed to earn their own lead in a chaotic period after the interval.

Sutton, on social media after the game, said of the match: “Celtic got away with that. CCV was immense. Too many players way off it. Mooy excellent when he came on. Juranovic would have struggled to impress any watching scouts… would Willie Collum in the VAR have awarded a penalty had a Celtic player handled the ball like Goldson?”

The pundit is largely spot on, though I wouldn’t characterise today as the Bhoys getting away with one – we ultimately deserved the point we got, no more or less.

Cameron Carter-Vickers was indeed superb and Sutton isn’t the only one left perplexed by both the performance of Josip Juranovic and the use of VAR technology.

Overall, Celtic can be happy heading deeper into the year with such a commanding nine-point lead at the top of the table. Kyogo’s goal could well prove pivotal in the long run.

Today the champions were far from their best. A better team would have punished us further. But Rangers showed they can’t even lay a finger on us when we are the architects of our own problems.

Despite what they say, that equaliser will be deeply demoralising for them. A win brought them back into a title race. A draw leaves them on the outside looking in.

In other news, Celtic unscathed, VAR, debut verdict: 3 things we learned as Bhoys draw vs Rangers.