Danny Röhl’s reaction to Alistair Johnston’s challenge on Mikey Moore and claims Hyunjun Yang’s Celtic equaliser was offside feels less like outrage and more like a Rangers manager struggling to accept a Glasgow Derby defeat to Celtic.
The Rangers manager made his feelings clear after reviewing the incidents again, but the wider reaction around both decisions has now grown far beyond the actual result of the game.
Mark Clattenburg has already rubbished the Celtic red card claims and the Yang offside speculation, but that still didn’t stop the Rangers boss from crying about the decisions at Parkhead.
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Danny Röhl made his frustrations crystal clear after Celtic defeat
Speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of Rangers’ game against Hibs, Röhl said: “Yeah, I watch it back and yeah, I took the 1-1 and I watched our game back against Motherwell at home.
“I think there was a similar goal and it was offside. I don’t know why that was the not offside.
“And then when I saw the tackle on Mikey Moore, I think it was a strong one. Then you can think about in this 10 minutes it could be 1-0 and 10 men.
“And the club is moving forward. They have conversations also with the federation with the refs. I think this is important and this is also where we have to be. Uh we cannot accept in these moments. I know we are not the refs but yeah finally two decisions with big impacts in this game.”
Röhl is entitled to feel frustrated after another derby defeat and nobody can pretend Johnston’s tackle was not aggressive. But there is still a major difference between a forceful challenge and a clear miscarriage of justice.
And as for Yang’s Celtic equaliser, IFAB guidelines are very clear that Nygren was not blocking Jack Butland’s view and the goal was correctly awarded.
The Rangers reaction to the Celtic defeat has become bigger than the actual result
Johnston ultimately received only a yellow card, with VAR reviewing the incident during the match before deciding against further punishment.
That detail matters because much of the reaction since full-time has treated the moment as though officials completely ignored it. They did not. The challenge was reviewed and no retrospective action followed afterwards either.
Football will always produce subjective refereeing debates, especially in matches carrying this level of pressure.
The bigger issue for Rangers is that too much attention is now falling on one tackle instead of another Celtic victory in the biggest fixture in Scottish football.
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