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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
David Irvine

'VAR couldn't intervene' - Beaton backed over Sakala Rangers vs Celtic penalty

John Beaton has been backed over the decision to award Rangers a penalty against Celtic.

The referee pointed to the spot when Fashion Sakala went down under a challenge from Carl Starfelt.

James Tavernier netted the penalty kick to put Rangers ahead after Ryan Kent had cancelled out Daizen Maeda's opener.

But Kyogo Furuhashi struck in the latter stages to salvage a point for his side.

BBC show The Vardict has analysed the incident and backed Beaton over his decision to award the spot-kick.

Pundit Richard Foster and ex-referee Stuart Dougal agreed that a penalty award was the right decision.

Foster stated: "This one here, Sakala driving into the box. For me, crazy defending goes to ground and I can't see anything else other than a penalty.

And Dougal added: "Well it's good you can talk about the defending, I'm here to talk about whether VAR should intervene or not.

"I don't think there is enough for VAR to come in and tell the referee that he has got it wrong.

"There is no clear and obvious error so a penalty has got to be awarded.

"And, you've summed it up from the defender's point of view, from VAR perspective I think they have got it right."

Foster continued: "You see Sakala there he tries to put his foot on the ground and Starfelt's momentum sweeps his feet away.

"For me, even the way he falls is very ungainly, you can tell that he has been fouled."

And Dougal added that VAR "couldn't intervene" because there was no clear or obvious error in Beaton's penalty call.

He concluded: "The key thing there is that VAR couldn't intervene and overturn that decision."

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