The “art” of winning a penalty has evolved over the years with players moving on from going down after no contact to purposely leaving a body part close to the defender knowing there will be some contact which lets them go down.
James Forrest won a fairly soft looking penalty in Celtic’s 1-1 draw away to Rennes last night, and it hasn’t gone down well with Michael Owen.
Some of his comments were picked up in a report by The Daily Record. They quote Owen as saying: “Forrest has certainly played for it. He sort of drags his leg and just decides to dive a bit.” He does state he thinks Celtic were well worth the point after a good showing in France.
READ MORE: Video: Celtic ace sent off only seven minutes after coming on as Ref falls for disgraceful play-acting
The referee had an absolutely shocking game so it won’t surprise anyone to hear he got this one wrong too. Celtic should’ve had a penalty earlier and Vakoun Bayo was sent off after a disgraceful piece of play acting- think Rivaldo going down clutching his face but with no contact- so things did even themselves out in the end.
Despite that, it’s probably not a glowing endorsement of the ref to say he was incompetent on so many occasions that it hindered both teams at different points.
An away point is always welcome for the Scottish teams in Europe, Celtic will get the chance to avenge their Champions League exit to Cluj in their next Europa League game as the Romanians visit Glasgow for a second time this season.
I’m also pretty sure that Forrest won’t be losing a great deal of sleep over that Michael Owen thinks of him.