Celtic’s draw with Rangers was packed full of incidents and controversy as both clubs battled to come out victorious in the race for the title.
A VAR ruling that gave Rangers a penalty after Fabio Silva was deemed to have been fouled in the box after first receiving a yellow card for diving had an impact on the 3-3 outcome.
Pundits, former players, and retired officials have all weighed in on the judgment, which has been hotly debated. The only thing that is certain is that there is disagreement about whether or not the award was appropriate.
John Hartson, though, views this from a somewhat different angle. The former Celtics hero claims that there wasn’t a penalty, but he also asserts that Beaton ought to have dismissed Silva for persistently diving during the match.
Silva ‘desperate’ to win a penalty against Celtic
I can’t recall how many times Silva rolled about the Ibrox turf on Sunday but it is fair to say that given the reaction of the Rangers fans at the penalty incident, even they were fed up with him.
And John Hartson goes one step further and says the Ibrox support will have been ‘disgusted’ by his antics.
“It’s not a penalty and obviously looking at it again I think Alistair Johnston gets a little nick of the ball,” Hartson remarked on The Go Radio Football Show.
“I believe Silva is quite eager to move on. I believe that his knee is somewhat in contact. However, I don’t think the referee should award it based on that.
Silva receives a yellow card from John Beaton. For his completely absurd play-acting during the game, he should have also received a yellow card.
“Graeme Souness would have been choking on his biscuits while he watched him punch the ground, acting as though he had popped his knee or something.”
He gets up and leaves without having anything at all to be upset about. It was incredibly unpleasant to witness that. The Rangers supporters will probably find him repulsive.
It appears that this will be discussed for a few days, but regrettably, no matter how much we discuss it, the outcome of the game will remain unchanged.
Celtic was comfortably leading 2-0 and would go on to win the match. However, the result was a tie, and although Brendan Rodgers wasn’t very disappointed, he will be optimistic about getting a win when Rangers come to Celtic Park in the coming weeks.
