Marvin Bartley reckons that Celtic were on the end of a “diabolical” refereeing decision in Tuesday night’s defeat to Feyenoord.
The Hoops fell to a 2-0 loss in their UEFA Champions League opener at De Kuip — a match they finished with nine men after Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm were sent off.
The former was dismissed for a second bookable offence after he was adjudged to have fouled Igor Paixao. It was clumsy defending from the Swede but Queen of the South manager and radio pundit Bartley can’t believe referee Irfan Peljto awarded the penalty.
“The first one for me is diabolical,” he said on Wednesday’s Clyde 1 Superscoreboard. “That can’t be a second booking. For me, it’s not even a foul.
“I’ve been in that position so many times as a defender and you do put your arm across. Listen, it brushes his chest and then he goes down and makes a meal of it and holds his face.
“I could not believe that was given first and foremost as a foul and secondly as a second booking.”
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers didn’t feel the team had been harshly treated by Peljto.
“It’s just inexperience to me at this level,” he told Celtic TV after the game. “We were in control of the situation and Gustaf’s just got to get his body there and let it run through to the keeper rather than get in the fight.”
Speaking later in the show, former Hibernian man Bartley admitted he expected to hear Rodgers calling out the decision.
Bartley: “I’m extremely surprised that Brendan’s come out and said what he’s said. Maybe he’s thinking he can’t change it so what’s the point?”
Our opinion on the incident is that it was daft and needless from Lagerbielke. He gave the referee a decision to make. Had it been on Kyogo Furuhashi down the other end of the pitch, we would have been screaming for it.
However, it is still one that falls into the debatable category. You can definitely see why it was given. But we’ll also all have seen similar incidents go unpunished.
Rodgers probably sees the moment as a major development point for Lagerbielke. Like Holm, he has to learn from the loss of composure and prevent it from happening at the top level in the future.
Perhaps calling out the decision would have excused Lagerbielke’s role in it. And it’s not as if the decision was going to be changed anyway. We move forward.
In other news, David Martindale strangely names three Celtic players who could be spooked in Livingston
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