{"id":801171,"date":"2026-03-03T12:25:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/801171\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T12:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T12:25:30","slug":"three-unseen-rangers-vs-celtic-penalty-claims-put-under-the-microscope-as-expert-delivers-verdict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/801171\/","title":{"rendered":"Three unseen Rangers vs Celtic penalty claims put under the microscope as expert delivers verdict"},"content":{"rendered":"

There didn’t appear to be any refereeing controversies on Sunday but it’s never that simple with the Old Firm<\/p>\n

09:56, 03 Mar 2026Updated 09:56, 03 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Our resident ref Des Roache is on duty for Record Sport this afternoon<\/p>\n

Referee John Beaton<\/a> and assistants and the VAR team received high praise for their handling of Sunday’s dramatic Old Firm derby at Ibrox.<\/p>\n

But even when the spoils are shared, Rangers <\/a>and Celtic fans are rarely content when it comes to Glasgow’s two fierce rivals going head to head.<\/p>\n

The one big decision in Govan came at the death when Celtic were awarded a penalty from which they earned a draw with Reo Hatate netting<\/a> after initially seeing a couple of efforts saved by Jack Butland.<\/p>\n

It came after Dujon Sterling<\/a> handled James Forrest’s cross. While Beaton initially missed the incident, Steven MacLean in Clydesdale House referred him to the monitor, and Beaton pointed to the spot.<\/p>\n

So all good in the end? Well, not quite. Three incidents in particular have been highlighted by both sets of fans which they believed could have been punishable on the day.<\/p>\n

Des Roache, who alongside fellow former Grade One official Steve Conroy runs the Ref’s View podcast<\/a>, was on duty for Record Sport on Sunday as part of our live blog team<\/a> for the big match. And we put all three to him to deliver his verdict.<\/p>\n

Tochi Chukwuani on Liam Scales – 10 minutes<\/p>\n

The Rangers midfielder appears to wrap his arams around the Irishman early in the game and wrestle the Celtic defender to the ground.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tochi Chukwuani and Liam Scales <\/p>\n

And this is the one incident of the three that the ex whistler reckons could have been a spot kick. He said: “This is more of a call for a penalty then the other two as he’s being held but I can understand it both ways.”<\/p>\n

Dujon Sterling on Sebastian Tounetki – 82 minutes<\/p>\n

This incident occurred in the 82nd minute of the game as the Rangers full back jostled with the Tunisian winger as he made his way into the box.<\/p>\n

Sterling appeared to use his strength to hold off his man but former FIFA official Keith Hackett told Football Inside<\/a>r it was a certain penalty.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The incident involving Sterling and Tounekti <\/p>\n

He said: “Well, I do hope that Willie Collum, the Head of Referees, will look at this and enquire of the referee and VAR how they failed to award what is clearly a penalty kick. The defender holding and impeding his opponent with contact. That is a foul and should have resulted in a penalty kick.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, our man Roache disagrees. He said: “No penalty. Both players are tussling together with Sterling being the stronger.”<\/p>\n

Julian Araujo on Nico Raskin – 95 minutes<\/p>\n

Julian Araujo on Nico Raskin<\/p>\n

Rangers desperately appealed for a spot kick in the dying seconds after Celtic had levelled when the Belgian midfielder attempted an overhead kick but appeared to be pushed in the back by Celtic’s Mexican full-back.<\/p>\n

But Roache said: “The push looks worse in slow motion – no penalty for me.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There didn’t appear to be any refereeing controversies on Sunday but it’s never that simple with the Old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4100],"tags":[2628,10747,94,34286,215583,39696,1946,33534,1638,136191,79,16,15,16263],"class_list":["post-801171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-celtic-fc","tag-dujon-sterling","tag-football","tag-ibrox-stadium","tag-john-beaton","tag-liam-scales","tag-rangers-fc","tag-scottish-football-association","tag-scottish-premiership","tag-sebastian-tounekti","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-var"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116165236369593190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}