Celtic produced a game to forget against Rangers on Thursday at Ibrox.
When Brendan Rodgers watched Celtic beat Rangers in the League Cup final at Hampden last month, even he would have admitted that his team started that game pretty poorly and weren’t at it before they won via a penalty shootout.
The Bhoys didn’t learn their lesson because they, somehow, managed to get worse in the post-New Year Premiership encounter and several players were lucky not to be subbed off at half-time.
Rodgers opted to make zero changes at the break, which was a surprise given Celtic’s performance, with tempers flaring at the half-time whistle.
Just before the break, Jefte elbowed Nicolas Kuhn on the nose and he needed to be treated because he was bleeding, with that incident discussed by Neil Lennon and Kris Boyd.
Neil Lennon says Jefte shouldn’t have been sent off for Rangers against Celtic
It was a pretty vicious elbow from Jefte, which resulted in him receiving a yellow card from the on-field referee Don Robertson and VAR didn’t see it as a red card offence.
Another individual who felt that it looked far worse than it looked was Lennon and he stated that it simply wasn’t a red card offence, as he told Sky Sports Football (02/01/25 at 4:05 pm).
The former Bhoys star claimed that the ‘correct’ call was made not to send Jefte off and that he ‘didn’t mean’ to swing his arm in such a fashion.
“No, not for me,” said Lennon. “I think it’s a flailing arm. I don’t think he meant to swing it or anything like that. Sometimes, it looks really bad from that angle.
“When you see it from this angle, I don’t think there is any real malice in it. He isn’t looking at Kuhn, just catches him. The linesman is standing right there. If he thought there was anything untoward it wouldn’t have been a yellow card. I think that’s the correct decision.”
Lennon unhappy with Kris Boyd mentioning the Alistair Johnston challenge
Just before the Jefte incident, Alistair Johnston jumped for the ball and caught Ianis Hagi on the back of his head.
No card was dished out, but when Kris Boyd offered his pennies worth on the Jefte incident, whilst dismissing it, he also mentioned and compared it to the Johnston challenge.
But that didn’t sit well with Lennon and he made his feelings clear towards his fellow pundit.
Boyd stated on Jefte’s elbow: “I think it’s a natural movement. I don’t think it’s any worse than Alistair Johnston’s on Hagi as well when he comes through the back of him.”
Lennon then looks over to Boyd in disgust: “Where did that come from? Honestly!?”
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