Daniel Feliciano

Mon 2 January 2023 14:50, UK

Chris Sutton has blasted VAR for not awarding Celtic a penalty in the 2-2 draw with Rangers on Monday, but says they “got away with” a point at Ibrox.

Celtic took the lead after four minutes before two goals in the first six minutes of the second half from Ryan Kent and James Tavernier gave Rangers the lead. The visitors snatched a draw at the death when Kyogo smashed into the roof of the net.

But Celtic wanted a penalty for handball when Connor Goldson looked to handle the ball in the box and although VAR waved the appeals away, Sutton was adamant that wouldn’t have happened if the defender was wearing green.

“Celtic got away with that,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account [2 January].

“[Cameron Carter-Vickers] was immense. Too many players way off it. Mooy excellent when he came on. Juranovic would have struggled to impresss any watching scouts.

“Would Willie Collum in the VAR hut have awarded a penalty had a Celtic player handled the ball like Goldson??”

Harsh

There is no way that would have been a penalty with any sane referee on the pitch no matter who was wearing what kit, because he’s so close to the ball and can’t possibly move.

You can bet any money you have that if that exact situation had led to a Rangers penalty that Sutton would be the first and the loudest to complain that it was given, so it’s interesting to see him pipe up here.

Ultimately though a draw was probably the fair result, but Rangers will feel as though they’ve dropped two having held the lead so late on and fought back from a losing position.

It’s not enough to get us back into the title race really, but we’ve shown we can compete and if Celtic do slip up elsewhere then we have to be ready to pounce and take advantage of that.

As it stands, the referee had a good performance overall and the players performed well in difficult circumstances, so there are far more positives than negatives.

In other Rangers news, Ryan Kent renewal talks enter “key phase” with transfer at play