Why Hearts denied Celtic penalty as VAR intervention explained
Hearts thought they had a chance to open the scoring from the spot at Celtic Park and were then incensed when the spot kick was taken away from them.
After weathering the storm early in the game, the Jambos began to grow in an attacking sense later in the first half and were getting balls into the box. From one such situation, a set-piece, referee Colin Steven pointed to the spot after Lawrence Shankland got his head to it and saw it blocked by the arm of Liam Scales.
But after a VAR review, the whistler ended up changing his decision and the penalty kick was taken away from Steven Naismith's men. They were not happy and maroon shirts surrounded Steven to remonstrate with him, to no avail as the decision was made.
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There was a bit of confusion around the actual reasoning for it, with BBC Scotland radio commentary wondering if the ball had come off Shankland's arm first. Replays showed that not to be the case and commentator Liam McLeod had the answers at half-time.
He explained: "The referee initially thought the defender's arm was outstretched and the ball had travelled far enough to deem it a handball. Once it was reviwed it was deemed the arm was in a normal position, it didn't travel far enough and it it hits the arm too high to be a handball. So that is why Colin Steven's initial decision to give Hearts a penalty was overturned."
Pundit Michael Stewart agreed with the call. Asked if the right outcome was reached, he said: "Yeah. Obviously hearing Liam's explanations there is good to hear because it rings true with what we saw and what we thought, so it's good to see referees are recognising that. I think it was the correct call."