Celtic v Juventus: Neil Lennon angered by 'manhandling'

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Gary Hooper

Celtic manager Neil Lennon was left fuming with the officials following his side's 3-0 defeat by Juventus in their Champions League last-16 first-leg.

The visiting defenders appeared to grapple Celtic players at set-pieces, with Spanish referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco refusing to award a penalty.

"They were being manhandled. They were being fouled. It's not rugby we're playing," said Lennon.

"Are the rules different in Spain or in Italy? On that showing, they must be."

The 41-year-old added: "It looked like the Juventus players were fouling at every opportunity.

"The referee was warned by our players to keep an eye on it and he ignored our requests.

"Every time we went to lose a marker we were being hauled back and the referee was looking straight at it."

However, Juventus manager Antonio Conte stayed away from any controversy when told about Lennon's assessment of the officials.

"Quite often in Italy we have the bad habit of over-criticising so I will leave it to the Celtic manager to criticise this evening," he said.

"Celtic are a good team but we knew this, and there was a fantastic crowd who were like two extra men and that can only drive a team on.

"So it was a difficult match for us, but we kept our heads.

"They played with great intensity but we showed great maturity and overall it was an excellent result for us."

Celtic midfielder Kris Commons was also left bewildered by events as he echoed his manager's comments and called for the officials behind the goal to take more action.

"Gary Hooper was pulled down to the ground on far too many occasions and we got no rewards," said Commons.

"You've got a referee there, a guy behind the goal, a linesman - the whole idea of the official behind the goal is to look out for this sort of stuff.

"If he can't identify when people are being hauled, manhandled, wrestled to the floor, then I don't think he should be in a job.

"He's 10 or 15 yards away and if it was a clear foul, it should have been a penalty.

The Glasgow side slumped to defeat as the Serie A outfit added to an early goal from Alessandro Matri with second-half strikes from Claudio Marchisio and Mirko Vucinic.

Commons revealed the referee warned the Juventus players on several occasions that their grappling may lead to a Celtic spot-kick.

Juventus defender Stephan Lichtsteiner and Celtic forward Gary Hooper were booked after a tussle as the former tried to protect keeper Gianluigi Buffon.

"He said if you do it again they'll get a penalty - that was in the first half," Commons said.

"He kept stopping it and booking people and telling people to stop it.

"It clearly had no effect because right up until the 91st minute when we had a corner, it was still going on."

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611 comments

  • Again, like I said last night. Many did not watch the game; it was NOT 'shirt-pulling', 'tustling' or 'Italian culture' e.t.c.

    It was blatant cheating, don't sugarcoat it.

  • Celtic gave away two appalling goals but the scenes in the Juve box at corners were a disgrace - this should have been dealt with swiftly. Unfortunately similar but lesser scenes can be seen at any football match and until the referees enforce the law (like they do in rugby) players will continue to flout it. Nothing will change. Anybody seen the ball being moved forward 10 yards in recent years?

  • The craziest thing about the refereeing last night was that he booked both sides for it. Did he honestly think Hooper was trying to prevent Lichtsteiner from getting to the ball?

    The underlying fact is that the officials were not strong enough to give a penalty - that's why the ref was blowing up before the corners were taken, as an excuse for not dealing with it when the ball was in play.

  • For once I agree with Neil Lennon.

    This has got to stop. It's not defending, it's wrestling. Why did the ref book the players before the corners / free kicks were taken but not do anything when the ball was in play for the same offence ?

    This kind of 'defending' has been going on for far too long. It's time for FIFA / UEFA to sort it out.

  • I don't think that Lennon is blaming the ref for Celtic losing the game.

    Celtic lost thanks to an appalling display of defending from one player. I feel sorry for the ten guys that played really well (check the stats if you want proof).

    However, the referee ALSO had a poor performance. Manhandling was only one example of this. Lennon's correct to highlight the issue, as any good manager would.

  • Normally I instantly turn off when a manager starts the standard moan about the referee but in this instant it was a disgrace.

    The worst thing was it wasn't so much his ineptitude it was his total cowardice in the face of the most obvious penalties I've ever seen. How on earth did the ref allow it to continue?

    Saying that if you defend as Celtic did its all fairly mute

  • Juve bribing refs again? Didn't watch the game but saw the grappling by Lichtsteiner, amazing that the Celtic guys didn't lash out. When I watch incidents like that it makes me embarassed for football: dirty tactics, incompetent officials and the Juve manager turns a blind eye, of course.

  • Naked football.... it's the only way to prevent this despicable shirt-pulling nonsense.

  • Again some of the comments on this thread already seem borne more out of English / Scottish antipathy than actual reason.

    As a neutral, last night, I was appalled at the physicality going on at Celtic pieces. It may not have been wholly one sided but the Hoops appeared to deserving of at least one (if not more) penalty awards.

    If that goes on when we play tonight I'll be livid.

  • Big picture - had Celtic avoided mistakes, and converted one or two of the opportunities created when they were dominant (during the better part of the match), they'd have won, drawn, or gone to Turin down by one goal. They did not, and were ultimately well beaten by the more talented club... Small picture - the Juventus fouls on set-pieces were quite blatant, and more should have been called...

  • That was completely unfair. Celtic played really well, with such tempo it was amazing. I cannot believe the referee didnt give at least one penalty, I mean even the cameras were zooming in on the man-handling, the ref and his buddies sold out. It's a shame, doubt Celtic will come through now...

  • What do you expect, when referees turn a blind eye to defenders holding down players and tugging on their shirts whenever corners are taken? It is more like a wrestling match when a corner is taken.

  • As a neutral, the point is not whether Celtic deserved to win or not but were Juventus cheating (or fowling) and they clearly were. As a sportsman, I can think of nothing worse than winning whilst cheating. Juventus were a disgrace last night as were the officials.

  • After 400+ posts, I'll sum up ... Celtic are crap, Scottish football is crap, all we do is complain, Lennon is a Ned, we should shut up ... etc.

    Yes or no ... throwing opposition strikers into the back of the goalnet is an offence?

  • Too many bitter supporters of other teams upset their team didn't make the last 16.

  • I'm not a supporter of any team,and just watch games to enjoy the soccer.Celtic had several excellent opportunties to score,but failed to finish.That makes the difference between a good team and a deadly one.The ref,however,was clearly either incompetent or biassed against Celtic,and I say that as a impartial observer.

  • I'm getting incredibley frustrated with people criticising Celtic. We dominated the game, but couldn't finish our chances, we deserved to lose on that basis. But as for the jostling in the box, it is a disgrace that the referee failed to control the situation. We did well to get this far, and for those saying Celtic will struggle in upcoming years, they obviously know nothing about the team.

  • When we see refereeing ,of that standard,corruption in football & UEFA turning a blind eye to it,why would we have any confidence that we a watching a true contest,i turned it of last night,more should do the same then sponsors would force UEFA into much needed action

  • The problem with football [apart from the lack of technology] is that refs have no sanctions available for continuous niggling, diving, holding, pulling & pushing. A sending off or penalty is too arbitrary a way of deciding a game; what is needed is the sin bin, power to move free kicks forward, indirect free kick in area, a new long penalty rule [sort of super direct free kick] and microphone.

  • @117 -" it's only because of geography they are even in the Champions League..if they were in EPL they wouldn't." What wonderful insight.
    Next you will be telling us it's only because they won the league.
    Why is it that any story about Celtic or Rangers descends into awful side arguments about EPL / SPL blah blah. Dull dull dull dull.

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