David Turnbull has urged his Celtic teammates to be more wary of the watchful eye of VAR after Celtic conceded two penalties in a match for the second time in ten days on Wednesday.
Just as in the 4-3 win over Hearts at Tynecastle in VAR’s introductory weekend in the Scottish Premiership, Celtic conceded a penalty initially awarded by the referee, and another after review against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu in the Champions League, with the opposition scoring from all four spot kicks.
In addition to Josip Juranovic’s saved penalty in Madrid, Celtic were also awarded another of their own against Livingston last weekend after a VAR review, which Giorgos Giakoumakis thumped off the post, with Turnbull lamenting the second penalty awarded in the Spanish capital against Matt O’Riley whose arm was barely away from his body.
As reported by The Herald, Turnbull said: “Obviously, you need to be more careful because there is more scrutiny to every challenge and block that is made,” he said.
“It was disappointing to concede two penalties, maybe boys are thinking going into games now about keeping their hands behind their back or whatever. Hopefully, we don’t get too many more decisions like that.
“I remember the first game with VAR against Hearts was a bit crazy and we’ll need to get used to it because that is the way it going to be now, but we’ll get there in the end. You get some for you as you saw last Sunday with a cross being blocked by a hand. So it happens both ways. We’ll just need to be more careful.”
Turnbull was philosophical after defeat in the Bernabeu brought Celtic’s Champions League Group F campaign to an end, their first in the competition for five years, with the Hoops squad all eager for further participation next season.
He said: “The overall feeling is disappointment first and foremost,” he said. “But there are positives to take. Every game we had a real go and tried to play our own football
“We created plenty of chances and had great opportunities against great opposition. We’re disappointed, but there’s a lot to take from it going into, hopefully, next year and we can progress further.
“You get punished at that level. If you don’t take your chances, they will go up the other end and score. It’s against top opposition and challenging yourself. It is hard to take sometimes when you have created so many chances, but we will take those positives from it and kick on.
“We’ve been brilliant in every game, I think. It’s just about taking our chances, but we have played our own football and the way the manager wants us to play. Everyone has enjoyed it and, hopefully, we can have a good league campaign the rest of this season and then more of the same next year.”
“I’m sure all the boys will want more. I know personally that the 30 minutes I played, I enjoyed every minute. It was tough, of course. But challenging yourself against these kinds of boys is brilliant and it just makes you want more. I’m sure other boys are the same.”
Celtic will be given the opportunity to immediately return to the Champions League group stage by winning the Scottish Premiership for a second successive season, immediately bypassing the rigmarole of qualifiers and an earlier start to the season.
Of course, there’s still plenty of the season yet to play, and Celtic will need to make sure that defeat in the Bernabeu doesn’t affect their momentum going into the World Cup break, with three league matches in the next eight days before the Premiership ceases until mid-December.
Less VAR penalty drama would be appreciated tomorrow against Dundee United given that Celtic have missed the two they’ve been awarded in the last week having waited all season to be awarded one, although in truth, they’ve rarely needed the help given the domestic form they’ve put together for most of this season.
In other news: Celtic star Maeda shares wholesome Japan World Cup squad selection story
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