During their 2-0 Europa League home loss against Braga, the SPL side felt they had received the wrong call.
Brendan Rodgers, Celtic’s head coach, has filed a request with UEFA after believing his team’s goal was incorrectly ruled out during their Europa League league phase match against Braga.
The Scottish champions were taken off guard by the Portuguese visitors at Celtic Park on Thursday, with Ricardo Horta’s long-range shot opening the score after 20 minutes – albeit seasoned custodian Kasper Schmeichel should have done better.
Rodgers’ side felt they had levelled early in the second half when Kelechi Iheanacho pounced onto a wayward pass and finished past Lukas Hornicek, much to the delight of the Celtic fans.
However, fans, officials, players, and analysts were surprised when VAR Christian Dingert recommended referee Tobias Stieler to deny the goal due to a handball, despite the fact that replays showed the ball did, in fact, touch the Nigerian forward in the face.
As the strike was chalked off, a chorus of boos echoed around Celtic Park. And things got worse for Celtic as Braga extended their lead through Gabri Martinez on 85 minutes, giving the Portugal-based club a 2-0 victory.
Following the game, Iheanacho described the call as “an awful decision,” while Celtic teammate Sebastian Tounekti called it “crazy”.
“To be fair, that was an awful decision from them,” Iheanacho told Celtic TV shortly after the game ended.
“The ball impacted my face, not my hand. It was a terrible decision.
“That changed the game.” We could have gotten back into the game.”
Despite the strange ruling, the former Manchester City and Leicester forward insisted that the referee “knows it wasn’t” handball.
Meanwhile, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was equally taken aback and has asked UEFA for an explanation.
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“We are still waiting to hear what the reason was, and it was a pivotal moment in the game,” Rogers added.
“I can’t understand why it wasn’t delivered.
“It was not even close to being a handball, and we are awaiting an explanation.
“I don’t see why the referee isn’t summoned to look into this.
“If you look at it once, twice, and I’m assuming the people in the VAR room have looked at it more than that, there’s absolutely no way it hits him there.”
Celtic is now 28th in the 36-team league phase after losing to Crvena Zvezda in game week one.
The Scottish champions will return to domestic play on Sunday, hosting Motherwell.
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