It's hit his face! Brendan Rodgers rages after VAR ruled out Celtic equaliser in Braga defeat

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers hit out at the controversial VAR decision which cost his team a goal in their 2-0 Europa League defeat to Braga.

Trailing 1-0 thanks to a Kasper Schmeichel error, it looked like Celtic had equalised early in the second half when Kelechi Iheanacho fired low into the bottom corner.

German referee Tobias Stieler then blew for an apparent handball against the Celtic striker, who had pounced on some loose play in the Braga defence.

But, despite a lengthy VAR check, and with replays showing no obvious infringement, the on-field decision was somehow deemed to be correct.

It was a hugely controversial moment on a night when Celtic’s shortcomings on the pitch once again provoked chants of ‘sack the board’ among supporters.

Clearly angered at the decision, Rodgers said: ‘I don’t know why the goal wasn’t given. It’s a real pivotal point in the game.

‘If we get the goal at 1-1, that breeds the confidence again. I don’t know why and I haven’t had an explanation as to why it wasn’t given. I can’t understand why the referee isn’t asked to go and have a look at it.

‘Even if you look at it once, twice, and I’m assuming the guys in the VAR will have watched it more than that because of the time it took, there’s absolutely no way you look at it from every angle and think it’s touched his arm.

‘It’s hit his face, he’s gone on and finished it really, really well. And that’s a big moment in the game for us because it would have been an equaliser and brought more confidence to us.

‘I think it’s very clear if you watch it - it’s a mistake by the referee. And that is why we are supposed to have the VAR, to overcome these things.

‘I’ve just watched Aberdeen score a penalty (against Shakhtar last night): clear handball, the referee’s asked to go and have a look, gives the penalty and they go 1-0 up.

‘For us, it was a big moment in the game. But we continued to press and their keeper made a couple of great saves.

‘We couldn’t quite get the goal and of course, at 1-0 when you’re chasing, we then conceded a disappointing second goal. It was very frustrating.’

The result leaves Celtic with just one point from their opening two Europa League matches, with their focus now turning to the visit of Motherwell on Sunday afternoon.

Rodgers admitted that his team continue to be too blunt in attack, with last night’s defeat the fifth match they have failed to score in already this season.

Accepting a degree of responsibility for that, he replied: ‘Whatever it is, I need to find the solution.

‘There have been too many games now where we haven’t scored from a team that last year scored the most goals in the last 54 years of the club’s history.

‘So, yes, we’re just in a spell now and it’s my responsibility. I need to somehow find the solutions to that because, like I said, we haven’t been scoring.

‘We’ve got into some good areas and the keeper’s made some good saves, but we still need to be more aggressive in our attacking play.’

Pressed on whether it’s down to poor performance or a lack of tools at his disposal, Rodgers said: ‘Again, it doesn’t really matter what it is, because nothing’s going to change in that aspect until at least January.

‘So I need to find the answers to that. There’s still a lot of games to be played, so we need to find a solution.’