Brendan Rodgers reckons the actions of Atletico Madrid players and staff influenced the decision to send off Celtic winger Daizen Maeda on Tuesday night.
The Japanese international was dismissed in the first half for a challenge on Mario Hermoso which looked every bit like a booking.
The referee agreed with that initially but an over-the-top reaction from Atletico coupled with a bizarre interpretation of VAR combined to see the yellow upgraded to a red.
Coaches rushed from the dugout and Hermoso stayed down for a long period on the pitch, acting as if the incident wasn’t just a coming together.
Brendan Rodgers on Celtic’s defeat to Atletico
Asked whether he thought the reaction of Atletico contributed to the sending-off, Rodgers said [Scottish Daily Mail, 08/11 print edition]: “Yes, there is no doubt. I don’t want to go on about the officials — you have to accept decisions. But it feels more like it’s a computer game now with the constant looking at the screens.
“When the referee comes over to see the incident it’s not a reflection of the actual challenge. It’s a still, with his foot up, which straight away plants the seed for the referee and from there his influence is to send the player off.
“We are clearly very, very disappointed. It was always going to be a challenge for us with 11 versus 11 with their quality. We get the man sent off so early in the game, after we had made a good start and looked confident, and were ready to fight in the game. But really, really disappointed with the sending off.
“When you see the images the referee saw, it wasn’t representative of the actual challenge. ‘Both players clashed feet and kicked each other and for us then to lose a man for that was going to be really, really difficult.”
The use of VAR was frustrating to say the least, apparently failing to take the context of the tackle into account and focusing on a still image of one frame that showed Maeda’s foot up.
Celtic are now reflecting on a dire 6-0 defeat and are on the brink of European elimination. The red card wasn’t the only thing that went wrong last night but it was a major moment in the match.
This group stage hasn’t gone how anyone at Celtic would have liked but the team must bounce back and pick up points in the final two matches, for pride as much as anything.
In other news, Ally McCoist hits out at Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone for his actions towards Celtic .
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