Celtic’s League Cup final win seems to be getting overshadowed by a penalty Philippe Clement feels his Rangers team should have got in the final.
Clement moaned that Rangers should have been awarded a spot kick after Liam Scales apparently fouled Vaclav Cerny inside the Celtic penalty box.
VAR had a look and deemed and agreed with on-field referee John Beaton’s decision that the infringement took place outside the box and a freekick was the correct decision.
So when asked about the incident after the match, Scales looked like he was trying to hold back a smile as the Celtic defender delivered his verdict on the big penalty flashpoint.
Liam Scales puts Philippe Clement in his place over his penalty comments vs Celtic
Clement said of the spot kick, “There’s also a penalty situation on Czerny. So it’s a weird one that the referee, at least, has not been asked to go to watch the monitor because we get a free kick at the edge of the box but his foot is on the line so it’s a clear penalty.”
Can’t have been that clear if the referee and the VAR team both thought the foul happened outside the box and that is exactly what Celtic defender, Scales thought.
Scales said, “I thought it was outside the box. I haven’t watched it back so I can’t really tell you if it was in or out.
“But at the time I thought it was outside. There were no complaints at the time so I think we just got on on with the game. So, yeah, I’m sure they looked at it upstairs.”
Liam Scales sends a message to Rangers after Celtic win the League Cup
Scales was asked if the League Cup win sent a message to Celtic’s rivals but the Republic of Ireland had a different take on that question.
Scales continued, “I think all season we’ve been sending a message that we’re sort of relentless and we’re playing good football this season.
“I think today you might not have seen much good football but to still get the win it showed another side to us that we can win ugly sometimes.
“I think these games, these cup finals, they’re always close, they’re always intense and it’s hard to control
them because there’s a lot of emotion, there’s a lot of nerves all over the park for both sides.
“They’re always different if you look back at the one last year it was the same, nothing in it for the whole game and that’s the case, that’s what we were expecting.”
Celtic picked up their 119th trophy in their history yesterday ending the myth that Rangers were Scotland’s most successful club.
With a huge lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has a great chance of winning another treble.
Whilst no one at Celtic will be getting carried away, the Bhoys’ win over Rangers sets up the rest of the season nicely as
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