IT was an agonising way to exit the Champions League for Celtic – after a brave performance in Munich.
And what made it more agonising for some Hoops fans who took to social media after the match was that they are convinced Alphonso Davies’ late clincher shouldn’t have stood.
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We were deep into the 94th minute by the time Alphonso Davies’ won a block tackle on Cameron Carter-Vickers to force the ball over the line and take Bayern through at the Hoops’ expense.
But some Hoops fans reckon it was a chance that Bayern shouldn’t have got after the French referee declined to stop the game approximately a minute earlier when Dayot Upamecano appeared to catch Daizen Maeda with an arm some 80 yards up the field.
The Frenchman immediately went over to the prone Maeda perhaps to apologise for an accidental contact – while Maeda lay on the ground for a while before reluctantly picking himself up.
The referee presumably appeared to be telling Maeda to pick himself up although some officials may have felt that the possibility of a head knock merited stopping the play.
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In any case play broke to the other end and Celtic were unable to clear their lines – with Callum McGregor inches away from stopping Michael Olise’s cross with led to Leon Goretzka’s header.
Schmeichel then produced another fine save to defy Goretzka only for Davies to get the final touch as Carter-Vickers attempted to clear the ball.
Asked specifically about the incident, Hoops skipper Callum McGregor declined to make excuses about the incident but not all fans of teh Parkhead side were inclined to agree.
McGregor said: “We don’t want to use things like that as an excuse.
“There were little bits of the game that could have been different.
“The boys gave an unbelievable effort and I want to focus on that because the performance was outstanding.”
One fan wrote: “That’s a foul day long”
A second said: “We need to be more streetwise in times like that, if maeda stays down the ref has no choice but to stop the game, soft foul for me.”
A third said: “Head injury, ref was a joke.”
A fourth said: “The ref looks back then let’s play continue. He calls that correct, that goal doesn’t happen.”
While that was the majority opinion of respondents on X, not all Celtic fans agreed though.
One Hoops fan writing: “goes down so easily though, that’s just too soft.”
Another said: “Each to their own, whenever something doesn’t go our way we go straight for the officials, it’s tedious.”
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