Celtic: Sutton hits back at Lineker slamming ‘worst VAR decision’ after ‘extraordinary’ penalty call | OneFootball

Chris Sutton and Gary Lineker have very contrasting opinions on the “extraordinary” decision to award Celtic a penalty in last night’s win against Motherwell.

On Wednesday night, Celtic battled back from behind to beat Motherwell 3-2 to keep their Scottish Premiership title hopes alive, while leaders Hearts beat Falkirk 3-0.

Had Celtic drawn, they would have needed to beat Hearts by a three-goal margin in the final game of the season this week to retain the title, but now they only need to win.

But Celtic’s win over Motherwell on Wednesday is clouded in controversy after Kelechi Iheanacho’s winning penalty deep into stoppage time was converted following an unbelievably poor VAR decision to award the shot-kick.

Motherwell’s Sam Nicholson was adjudged to have handled the ball during a collision with Celtic’s Auston Trusty, which is remarkable considering he sent the ball 20+ yards away with his head.

Despite this, Sutton has defended the decision to award Celtic a penalty.

Sutton wrote on X: ‘Now the dust has settled, the reaction from many high profile people is way over the top.

‘John Beaton was advised to go to the monitor and saw that the ball hit the arm in an unnatural position. Bottom line is people would hate to see Celtic win the title again and that is all.’

However, Gary Lineker, who has been an outspoken critic of VAR for a while, hit out at the “extraordinary” decision after the game.

He said on X: “This might be the worst VAR decision I’ve seen (and there’s a lot of competition). Extraordinary given the significance.”

In response to these comments, Sutton hit back, saying this incident is ‘what VAR is there for’.

Celtic boss Martin O’Neill, meanwhile, kept his cards close to his chest after the match, but he revealed that his players felt it was a penalty.

When asked about the decision, O’Neill said: “The lads have a little monitor. It’s very small. I can’t really see it. I need another pair of glasses to see it. The lads thought it was a handball, an elbow as well too.”

“I thought I’d seen it all this season…”

Unsurprisingly, Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou, who saw his side’s European qualification hopes fade with the late Celtic loss, hit out at the penalty decision.

“I think it’s one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in my career, taking everything into consideration,” Askou said.

“I thought I’d seen it all this season, but I hadn’t.

“If we keep making calls that we have done too many times, we will end up being ridiculed as a football country and I don’t think we deserve that because in so many ways this country is taking steps in the right direction, especially this season. It’s a shame.

“Even watching it from a distance I was shocked he even got called to the monitor because you can see he connects with his head.

“The reason you could find a picture where it hits his finger, it’s because he connects with Trusty and his arm gets pushed in the direction where he’s heading the ball. Even if he finds a connection with the arm, it’s not a penalty.”