November 08, (THEWILL) – Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, has compared modern football to a “computer game”, after claiming Daizen Maeda was harshly sent off following a VAR review in the Scottish club’s 6-0 thrashing by Atletico Madrid, on Wednesday night.
The Japanese forward initially only saw yellow for a 50-50 challenge with Atletico’s Mario Hermoso. However, after consulting the pitch-side monitor at the behest of the animated Atletico bench, referee Davide Massa upgraded the card to red.
Rodgers felt the official had made the right call in real time. With the match locked at 1-0, Maeda’s dismissal on 26 minutes proved the turning point, as Atletico ruthlessly exposed Celtic’s 10 men in the second half. Antoine Griezmann and Alvaro Morata both bagged braces, while Samuel Lino and Saul Niguez rounded off the rout.
A frustrated Rodgers bemoaned the number of big decisions now influenced by off-field officials. “It’s not so much the technology, but how it is implemented,” he said, arguing the constant stoppages have fundamentally altered the sport.
The heavy loss leaves Celtic bottom of Group E on 1 point. But they can still reach the Europa League if they beat Lazio and Feyenoord in their remaining games and other results favour them.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
