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Brendan Rodgers take on both Celtic vs Hearts penalty calls and explains Arne Engels taking penalty

Brendan Rodgers backed both Celtic vs Hearts penalty calls
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Brendan Rodgers insists the officials were spot on with BOTH penalty decisions from Celtic's win over Hearts.

The visitors had their own spot kick overturned after referee Colin Steven initially deemed Liam Scales' blocking of Lawrence Shankland's header to be a handball. However, the contact was high on the defender's arm and it was headed at him from point blank range, so a VAR review concluded the decision should be changed.

VAR got involved again when Steven was initially unmoved after James Penrice got in the way of Nicolas Kuhn's cross. But after watching it again on the screen, he pointed to the spot after seeing the ball strike the left-back's arm.

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Jambos boss Steven Naismith had his say already and suggested that if the first one wasn't given, neither should the second. His argument is that there isn't much distance between Penrice and Kuhn, akin to with Shankland and Scales.

But Rodgers backed the calls, and said: "By the rule, the officials were correct (to overturn the Hearts penalty award). On the same token, if your arms up and the ball hits you, then it's going to be a penalty."

Arne Engels took the kick to get his first goal for the club on his first start, despite Reo Hatate being the usual taker.

Rodgers explained: "Reo was the number one taker. That's the selflessness of Reo. The number two taker was Arne. They practiced yesterday. Both their levels were high. Arne stuck it away really well. A good performance by him."