Brendan Rodgers is frustrated after Celtic were denied a crucial equalizer against Hibs on Saturday.
Hibs emerged as 2-1 winners in Edinburgh, with Josh Campbell’s first-half double securing just Celtic’s second Premiership defeat this season.
Following an impressive performance against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, the Hoops looked sluggish and fatigued in Leith.
Celtic showed improvement in the second half, dominating possession and keeping Hibs pinned deep in their own half.
Daizen Maeda pulled one back and believed he had completed his brace and Celtic’s comeback when he fired in to make it 2-2.
Rodgers reveals referee McLean’s disallowed goal explanation:
On-field referee Steven McLean initially awarded the goal, but VAR overturned it, ruling that the ball had gone out of play before Alistair Johnston crossed to Maeda.
The TV camera angles provided by Premier Sports did not appear to offer conclusive evidence that the entire ball had crossed the line, and Rodgers accused VAR official Alan Muir of guessing the decision.
VAR claimed it was a factual overturn of the goal decision, but Rodgers remains unconvinced. He shared with reporters at his post-match press conference what McLean told him about the controversy.
Rodgers said: “He (McLean) just said afterwards that it was a VAR decision, that it was factually out. Which will be interesting from the 18-yard line, if you don’t have the actual images.
“That’s what I’m saying, I don’t want to be overly critical until someone produces an actual piece of evidence that tells us the ball was conclusively out.”
Rodgers addresses making three Celtic subs at half-time:
67 Hail Hail handed 3/10 ratings to Greg Taylor and Adam Idah, both of whom were substituted by Rodgers at half-time, along with midfielder Luke McCowan.
Taylor struggled at the first Hibs goal and received a booking for a late challenge, while striker Idah delivered a poor performance, offering little in attack and being at fault for Campbell’s headed goal.
Rodgers discussed the three half-time substitutions with reporters after the match, refraining from criticizing the players due to their contributions throughout the season.
The Northern Irishman explained: “Again, those guys have scored really important goals for me this season, and they’ve performed well.
“I’m having to manage guys like Jota coming back, Jeffrey Schlupp too. So there’s a recovery in that, and you’re trying to manage the game time of players.
“But I’m not going to criticize the three guys, because they’ve been very important players in our squad this season. Listen, it’s football. It’s sport. We were brilliant during the week.
“Today, we don’t want to have any excuse for fatigue, tiredness. You’re at a big club, you’ve got to get used to being tired and playing through that. Today, we just weren’t quite on it.”
