We should have known. Te picture posted of referee Ivan Kuzliak in an earlier diary suggested a man who likes to be the centre of attention, and so it proved.<\/p>\n
The Slovakian ref, obviously a pupil of seville referee Lubos michel, doesn’t like the rough and tumble aspect of the game. He also doesn’t like it if he doesn’t get to use his shiny new whistle every couple of minutes, and as a result the game deteriorated into a series of stoppages and interruptions.<\/p>\n
Celtic lost 1-0 in the end, after a disciplined and organised display in the san siro, despite losing dutch wonderboy ( we wonder when he will finally realise his potential ) defender Virgil van Dijk after a couple of fouls the referee deemed bookable. The second one was, but the first wasn’t. In fact, it probably wasn’t even a foul.<\/p>\n
There were outstanding displays from Efe Ambrose, Jason Denaayer, Nir Bitton, Scott Brown and Craig Gordon, but in retrospect the decision to remove Gary Mackay Steven, with his pace and workrate, meant there was no outball.<\/p>\n
And no threat on the Inter goal.<\/p>\n
It was retrospectively the wrong decision, because at the time, the team had to re-organise when van dijk shrugged his shoulders and left the proceeding. Which meant that ambrose was the ready made centre half, but the hoops needed the strength of Armstrong, and in theory at least, Guidetti to try to hold the ball up in the opposition half.<\/p>\n
It didn’t work, although Guidetti did show us that he knows how to dive.<\/p>\n
It could have been so different, Celtic had a couple of early penalty claims denied, at least one of which should have been awarded when Armstrong was pushed to the ground when racing in on goal. Gary Mackay Steven used his pace to earn a one on one with the keeper, but elected to play the shot low instead of high.<\/p>\n
At this stage, Celtic looked if not in control, then certainly competitive.<\/p>\n
Then Virgil gave us his contribution….<\/p>\n
The referee did have a bad game, theres no doubting that, but thats life at this level, and especially in Italy.<\/p>\n
Ronny Deila agreed;<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sending off for Virgil was very cheap.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe referee had a bad day at work. If we had a day like that we would have lost 6-0.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n The manager felt for his players, who had put in a more than decent shift;<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very disappointed dressing room. I feel sorry for the players but I\u2019m also \u201cUntil the sending off it was an even game and we controlled it more and more.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe sending off made it very difficult for us and we had to work hard defensively.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to keep it tight and hope for a chance near the end but we couldn\u2019t make it.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBefore the sending off you could see that we have something for this level. Anything can happen in one game but there were things that ruined it for us.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe had a very good chance to go through.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt was tough to take but it gives us motivation to get back to this stage because we showed we can do something here.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNow we have to use this in our domestic form so we can get back into Europe and the Champions League.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe had to defend better here and did not go so much with the full backs as usual.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThat was a good move as Inter did not create so much until we had 10 men. Defensively, we did a good job.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cInter have the opportunity to go on and win the Europa League, for sure.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to sit and speak about what would have happened with 11 against 11.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to say more about the referee. He had a bad day.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0Diplomatically put.<\/p>\n Kris Commons didn’t put it quite so diplomatically, as he harangued the Slovak at full time and also picked up a booking. I’m not sure what he said, but I think he may have used the words “idiot ” and an expletive, but not in that order.<\/p>\n And then there was the big story of the night-well, acccording to the MSM;<\/p>\n Celtic in hot water over San Siro flare as pyrotechnics are seen during Europa League defeat<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Thats from the Daily Mail.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The MSM obviously have much better eyesight than hearing, as they seem to miss anything aurally offensive, yet can pick up most visual effects instantly. One hack, possibly the same one from the Mail, stephen MacGowan, he of “Rangers emerged from liquidation 2 fame, ” made the flare the subject of his first question in the post match press conference.<\/p>\n \u00a0I’m not into whataboutery, I’m not into pyrotechnics, but its hard not to see an agenda here.<\/p>\n \u00a0Defender Virgil van Dijk spoke about his red card;<\/p>\n “It was a terrible decision. That is the worst referee I have ever experienced in my career. I don’t know why he made this decision but it was shocking. I watched the whole game and I don’t understand all of the decisions he made.<\/em><\/p>\n “The second yellow card was just a ball in the air that two players are challenging for. We are shoulder to shoulder and Icardi got up and asked for the referee to book me again. He did that and it was a terrible decision.<\/em><\/p>\n “I would never ask for an opponent to be booked but it happens in football. What disappoints me most is that they weren’t yellow cards and it happened so early in the game. It was a bad decision and that shouldn’t happen.<\/em><\/p>\n “I don’t even know what the ref said to me. After the first yellow card, I was thinking:’What is going on here?’ It was a fair challenge. Hard, yes, but we play man’s football and that happens.<\/em><\/p>\n “I don’t understand that one and I didn’t understand the second one either. I knew the red card was coming and I just walked off. You can shout and scream and it doesn’t change anything. I was just hoping the team would pull off the impossible task but Inter scored a goal.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n He added an apology;<\/p>\n “I want to apologise to my team-mates and all the fans who travelled to Italy. I let them down and I feel terrible. If I’d stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes, we’d have had a big chance to go through.<\/em><\/p>\n “We had a good gameplan and we started well. We learned a lot from the first leg at Celtic Park. We stayed close together as a back four and we talked a lot.<\/em><\/p>\n “We had chances and I think we would have had a good chance to go through.What happened was very bad for me and for the team. I felt so bad that I had let my team mates and all the fans down.<\/em><\/p>\n “It’s so disappointing and I need to learn from this. I am young, I am learning every day and I’ve made high expectations for myself.<\/em><\/p>\n “Sometimes it’s hard to meet them because I am young but I will try to learn from this. As a team, we showed we have made progress. We have been good in the league and even with 10 men, we showed our quality. It’s just so disappointing that we are out of Europe.”<\/em><\/p>\n Fair enough.<\/p>\n I’m keeping it short today.<\/p>\n The team didn’t disgrace themselves, not by a long talk. alright, maybe van Dijk had been a bit naive, but his apology and reasoning in the quote above suggest he is genuinely distressed and puzzled by the bookings.<\/p>\n \u00a0There is a team coming together under Deila, don’t forget he, too, is learning at this level. He’s a quick learner,and next season promises much if he can keep the spine of this side together, and make a few more quality additions.<\/p>\n \u00a0Theres still a treble very much in our sights, it just doesn’t feel like much of a consolation after an eight month ride in Europe just ended with an anto climax not unlike the feeling after Seville. It should do by Sunday, though.<\/p>\n \u00a0Seville.<\/p>\n Where a Slovakian referee sent off a Celtic centre half for boisterous defending…..and killed our chances of winning.<\/p>\n \u00a0Do you think they haven’t forgiven us for giving Lubomir Moravcik his spiritual home ?<\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We should have known. 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\nproud of them.<\/p>\n