The foul that led to it was a yellow all day long mate. If you commit a foul like that, a wild swing at a players knee intended to injure if possible, you deserve all you get from the resultant free kick.
Thatās a very weak explanation for a goal incorrectly awarded. @Cicero_Dandi is going to be all over you there. Heās forever advocating consistency and fair play across the board and calling out hypocrites.
I couldnāt care less mate.
Hereās my explanation :
Celtic 1-0 Sevco
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Itās always great to get a dodgy goal against the huns. Will have them blaming others and feeling hard done by.
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Isnāt it just.
If you look at it, the obscured Helander actually plays everyone onside. He just stands like a statue and doesnāt follow the ball in.
Celticās match report from the Athletic. Not much in it but not a bad article. Who writes the headlines though? Thatās such a horribly constructed sentence.
Celtic were stronger down to 10 men with Edouard in cup final win than when they had 11 without him
By Kieran Devlin 4h ago
The omens were, well, ominous.
The monsoon rainfall and abrasive winds that swamped Glasgow for the better part of 24 hours before the Betfred Cup final kicked off were made more starkly grey by the whirl of rumours around the fitness of some of Celticās key players. As Neil Lennon had spent much of the past fortnight skirting press questions on that very subject, fuelling the mystery even further, it had become a critical theme of this game days before anyone had even kicked a ball.
The outbreaks of sunshine as kick-off approached teased respite, and while the return of Moi Elyounoussi was appreciated, the absence of Odsonne Edouard from the starting XI felt like the eye of the storm, the team sheet reveal accompanied by the crack of dreadful thunder.
The game began with the intensity and brashness that only a cup final derby in the midst of a thunderstorm could, plagued by shanked passes and flurries of headers. But gradually Rangers began exerting their authority in the middle and harrying venomously down Celticās left, with Jonny Hayes initially struggling as Alfredo Morelos rampaged in the space between him and Kris Ajer.
Similar to the league game in September, the flow of the action was defined by the victors in the middle, by those most assertive in 50/50s. While Celtic dominated three months ago, Rangers emphatically reversed the dynamic here, with Scott Arfield, Ryan Jack and Glen Kamara overcoming the underperforming Scott Brown, Callum McGregor and Ryan Christie.
With Rangers winning most of the midfield battles, inhibiting any coherent build-up play, Celticās offensive plan was limited to aimless long balls, desperately hoping to feed on scraps from unforced opposition errors. But they were targeted at a player with neither the instinct or strength to utilise them.
Though Lewis Morgan had started the previous three games as Celticās nominal striker, scoring against Rennes and providing a lovely assist against Ross County, his movement, physicality and positioning were conspicuously not that of a natural striker. His running on Sunday was harmlessly lightweight, with no vertical passes into his feet remotely sticking, and Celticās directive for launching high balls at Filip Helander and Connor Goldson was hopelessly self-defeating as the Rangers centre-backs were able to comfortably head clear and begin attacks of their own.
The incisiveness of Elyounoussi and James Forrest might have normally compensated for Morganās ineffectiveness, but both were poor, the Norwegian in particular. So habitually a big game player in Europe this season, Elyounoussi was hesitant, messing up even simple passes and lacking his normal bite defensively.
At half-time, the downpour escalated and the wind grew more blustery. The omens were manifesting.
Then, as Rangers continued to miss a processions of chances, Celtic brought on a striker, which offered a visible uplift both on the pitch and in the stands.
Edouardās arrival for Morgan early in the second half made a mockery of the idea of instant impact. Within seconds he was winning a free-kick with the kind of smart hold-up play Celtic hadnāt enjoyed in weeks while he had been out injured. It was a free-kick from which Celtic scored the gameās only goal, with their only shot on target in the form of Christopher Jullienās weighted volley.
That goal came in the 60th minute. Three minutes later, Celtic were down to 10 men, with Jeremie Frimpong sent off for pulling back Morelos in the box. It was harsh for Frimpong, who was sold short by clumsy defending from his centre-backs, as he had been the only starting Celtic outfield player showing any confidence and composure.
Fortunately for him, Morelosās penalty was saved by Fraser Forster and Celtic kept their lead.
Soon after, Edouard outmuscled Goldson to feed Mikey Johnston for a one-on-one that he inexplicably contrived to miss, again showing in very plain terms how imperative a natural striker is for any coherent attacking game plan.
It helps when Edouard isnāt just any old striker. Post-match, Ajer praised his team-mate to The Athletic : āOf course, we know heās a top, top quality striker, and he won us the free-kick for the goal, and then also was really important as an outlet at the end of the game, so he was brilliant.ā
Celtic donāt win this game without Edouardās build-up play or aptitude as an out ball. While he didnāt cap the afternoon off with a goal himself, or so much as sniff the faintest opportunity to attempt a shot on goal, the subtle gracenotes with which he plays ā the way he receives and recycles the ball, the timing of his decisions in possession, his reading of space when looking to break defensive lines ā altered the dynamic of the match.
Thereās a legitimate argument to be made that Celtic played better with 10 men and Edouard, than with 11 men without him.
Then thereās Forster, who has remarkably now saved 14 of the 35 penalties he has faced in his career.
So frequently this season he has come up with a save that has distorted the laws of physics. Twice against Lazio. Against Rennes. Against Hamilton just last week. Against Rangers he might not have had a single spectacular moment that will ratchet up BT Sportās Twitter engagement numbers, rather he had an onslaught of very good saves, commanding clearances and perfectly-timed blocks that snowballed into a highlights compilation to rival the running time of The Irishman.
Each time Forster got a strong hand to yet another ill-fated Morelos effort, there was the growing impression of certain indefatigability; that the only and essential truth of the entire universe, revealed within a sodden Hampden Park in the winter of 2019 for 90 minutes, was that Morelos would not score past Forster.
This is no longer an England international rebuilding his confidence and revitalising his form. Heās here now, back, at the pinnacle of himself.
It might not pass into myth quite as iconically as his indomitable display in the 2012 win over Barcelona, given its context in a rainswept domestic final rather than a storied Champions League game, but it probably should.
Forrest described Forsterās performance as āunbelievableā, while Ajer claimed āit was the best goalkeeper performance (heād) ever seenā. Itās probably up there.
The opening 45 minutes of Sunday were the poorest Celtic have been all season, rattled and rudderless, and the second 45 only marginally better, with Forrest admitting āit was the worst weāve played in a long timeā.
Yet through Forster ā La Gran Muralla ā and through Edouard, possibly the clubās most gifted striker since Henrik Larsson, Sunday was defined by two players on the opposite sides of the pitch, once again delivering the decisiveness that has made them Celticās most important characters this season.
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Oh my days.
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That headline
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Thatās the worst headline Iāve ever seen 
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Great to see rangers competitive again. The Scottish game is interesting to watch for the first time in years.
Albanian President still buzzing.
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I hope youāre right and I think you probably are. There have been occasions in the past when one or other has won a big cup game, but has ultimately been caught out in the league. Offhand I recall Celtic beating them 2-0 in the League Cup Final in 2009 when it used to be played in March and they rebounded to win the league.
I think the context is a bit different here though - thatās 10 trophies in a row for Celtic, the huns have come on quite a lot but they still havenāt won anything (0/4 now for Gerrard) and itās driving them demented. Throw in the fact they were absolutely dominant yesterday and Celtic were to all intents and purposes shite. That must be completely deflating and it would be great if they had a hangover from it - starting with losing their last Europa League group game and getting eliminated on Thursday.
That said, Celtic need to guard against complacency. Their performance with 10 men was excellent and defiant but they were very poor and off the pace for the first hour. With the gap between the teams narrowing, you canāt go into these games with a half arsed attitude. It cost the huns in August - theyād seen Celtic dumped out of the CL qualifiers to Cluj, they donāt seem to rate Lennon, theyād won the two home league games last season and they thought theyād stroll over us. But Celtic were well up for it and put them in their place. There was an element of the huns being more in tune yesterday and winning lots of battles.
Celtic have a tricky night game at Hearts next midweek but if we can negotiate that then weāll be in good shape to play them in the league at Celtic Park at Christmas. In a weird way Celtic will have more to prove in that game and we can hopefully impose ourselves on them with the backing of the home crowd and extend the lead at the top.
A lot of waffle there but the bullet point version is:
ā¢ Yes, fuck the huns. I hope this hurts them and has a big knock on impact.
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Yeah. So much of what went wrong yesterday was down to a lack of striker. I think Christie was nullified without someone to play off and we ended up losing a midfield battle to a very average Rangers trio.
Then we had Elyounoussi looking very rusty (and perhaps understandable given how little football he has played in the last 12 months) and a few below par performers (Forrest in particular was very poor).
A fit Edouard at the end of December and in form wingers and I think weāll be a different proposition entirely.
They still have problems at centre back and some average midfielders to accommodate in that team.
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Yesterday was a direct reversal of the games around 96/97 when Tommy Burns was managing Celtic and trying to stop nine in a row
Celtic would dominate possession but could never score and Andy Goram would be like two men in the goal
I particularly remember a game at Celtic Park on a Thursday night when he saved a penalty from van Hooijdonk and Rangers jammed a 1-0 win
Yesterday Goramās equivalent was Big Fraser
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āIām not going to sit here and looks for excuses. The big moments have gone against us today. Weāre all responsible for that but the reality is that at the top end of football you expect the linesman to get at least one of them right as there were three (players) standing in an offside position."
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Uncle Tom English was absolutely seething.
There are few things worse than a green tory rubby man masquerading as a football journalist.
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