Saturday night’s game under the lights in Paisley had its fair share of talking points.
Celtic came from behind to collect all three points and continue their perfect start to the league season.
The last time that Celtic dropped points in the league was that 2-0 loss to Dundee United in March, which sparked a perfect run in as the Champions stormed to another league title last season.
VAR came to Celtic’s rescue in the final game last season, judging Maeda’s late goal to be onside after the linesman raised his flag. That showed just how useful VAR can be, literally ensuring that the correct calls win leagues.
Last night, VAR wasn’t shown in the best light.
The first call came when Duran had his goal chalked off. There have been different angles and freeze frames thrown around, but in this case we simply have to trust the technology.
The VAR operators can use other camera angles to ensure they have the freeze frame at the kick point and then switch to the 18-yard line angle to draw the lines. And the camera angle that the lines were drawn on, to the naked eye, isn’t in line with play which can cause some confusion, but those lines are calibrated.
The second VAR talking point came as Mhueka scored his first goal in Celtic colours as he looked to give the Hoops a 2-goal cushion. VAR could not draw lines for the offside, so brought the referee to the monitor to have a look at a freeze frame.
The decision of offside was probably correct, if we are being honest, BUT in that situation, the on-field call should be the one that the officials go with; trust the linesman and don’t guess the lines.
VAR had a very quick look at something, but decided it didn’t need to get involved. A double-hand push on Liam Scales in the penalty box from a corner. Callum McGregor forced a brilliant save in that phase of play.
You can see that Liam Scales is in midair and challenging for the ball while he received a push on his back, which caused him to tumble.
Two handed push in the back whilst trying to head the ball. A blatant foul. https://t.co/y8vQwZFqqK pic.twitter.com/Bbqy5AZP5q
— ᴘʙ 🍀 (@p_bov1) September 5, 2026
That’s probably a penalty, despite it being a bit on the soft side.
While VAR was probably correct for the first offside call, it shouldn’t have gotten involved in the second. Should they have called the referee to the monitor for the penalty claim?
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3 responses
That freeze frame of Scales being pushed – ref is looking right at it! I think that refs should be interviewed after games like players and managers – would love to know what he saw?
does Celtic benefit when var gets invovled i thought the ref had a poor game not allowing advantage theres no pressure on them they can always call it back on last game linesman put his flag up before Celtic scored that could have cost The player to stop playing or defender to stop thats poor we have had var for years they now rules just seems Celtic have to go through the var check every goal O’Neil right you hesitant to celebrate
yes the Rangers got one