Celtic managed to book their place in the next round of the Scottish Cup with a 5-1 win over St Mirren. Reo Hatate scored a brace after coming on as a substitute. Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda found the back of the net as well. And Oh Hyeon-gyu showed his instincts in the box to grab his first goal for the club, having joined in January from Suwon Samsung Bluewings.
Celtic did see one decision correctly given in their favour by VAR on the day. The Hoops were awarded a penalty in the second half, which Hatate converted.
Lately, there has been a lot of talk about VAR and how it has been implemented in Scottish football, since being introduced earlier on in the campaign. We have seen a number of decisions go against Celtic till now.
As reported by 67 Hail Hail, BBC Sportsound reporter Kheredine Idessane asked Postecoglou about his happiness with the length of the checks on the night and also whether or not he was content that a couple of decisions had come back in Celtic’s ‘favour’, to which the manager replied:
"“That’s an interesting take. I don’t know if there’s a favour barometer, I’m just thinking they’re making decisions. I had my say about VAR a few weeks ago and everyone came at me that I was fuelling conspiracies, so I’ll let the other managers now run the race. I had my say on it.“I assume the result of the decisions today were correct. If they weren’t correct and as you say they were ‘favourable’ to us, whatever that means, let others judge.”"
Celtic boss gives brilliant reply to reporter’s VAR question after win over St Mirren in the Scottish Cup
It is safe to say that a number of decisions have gone against Celtic this season, following the introduction of VAR. On the day against St Mirren, that was not the case and the correct decisions were made.
That does not mean that anything really went in Celtic’s favour. VAR just did the job that it was introduced to do. That is to get decisions right.
Postecoglou has faced quite a bit of criticism from certain sections of the media for his comments on VAR in recent times and as a result, him refusing to comment too much on the matter is understandable.