Brendan Rodgers questions VAR application and insists Celtic goal wrongly ruled out at Ross County

Celtic had two goals ruled out after VAR checks in the 3-0 win over Ross County

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers felt Oh Hyeon-gyu's disallowed opener at Ross County should have counted. (Photo by Paul Devlin / SNS Group)

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was left with frustrations over the application of VAR in his side’s 3-0 win over Ross County in Dingwall. An afternoon’s work he accepted sets his team up perfectly for their Champions League assignment against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday with the squad workload spread this week as he made six changes from the 2-1 midweek win over St Mirren.

An added time first half-opener from David Turnbull and two late goals claimed by Luis Palma and James Forrest against a home side reduced to 10 men after 11 minutes were required to make certain of the three points. A haul that allowed the Scottish champions to open up an eight-point gap at the top of the table over rivals Rangers, who have played a game fewer. But Rodgers believed that should not have been the case with Liam Scales having a goal disallowed inside six minutes after VAR adjudged Oh Hyeon-gyu had fouled Jordan White as the two challenged aerially in the build-up to Scales netting. Rodgers left unsure too by the VAR call against Daizen Maeda that ruled out an Oh strike on the half-hour. Both the subject of lengthy reviews.

“I haven’t [seen them again] but at the time, our replay on the side I felt it took an eternity for the VAR decisions. So I don’t know about the offside one, it was very close. But the other one, it’s two guys who have jumped for the ball. I don’t know where the foul was so that was disappointing. I thought it should have been a goal,” he said. “Overall, though, I was pleased. We made a number of changes to bring new energy in the team. It’s difficult when they get the man sent off early because it means it’s a game of attack v defence. But we had some really good chances before taking the lead.

“[In terms of it being perfect prep], yeah [it was]. I wanted to see players play [that were brought in] but they're under pressure to perform. There are no gimmes, you have to perform well while keeping the structure of the game. The players did that. We recovered some of our players who have played a lot like [Matt] O’Riley and Alistair Johnston [who didn’t come off the bench] so it worked really well for us.”