Neil Lennon voiced his opinion that Celtic were fortunate during their Scottish Cup semi-final clash against Aberdeen at Hampden Park.
The incident in question occurred right before half-time when Aberdeen’s Bojan Miovski attempted to get the ball past Celtic’s Liam Scales, resulting in a contentious handball situation. But Lennon cleared up the debate about a potential penalty, saying that the incident took place just outside the box.
The match was evenly poised at 1-1 after Miovski’s opener was cancelled out by Nicolas Kuhn, who scored following a turnover forced by Kyogo.
As the first half neared its conclusion, Miovski’s effort to push past Scales led to the ball striking the defender’s arm, prompting vigorous penalty claims from the Aberdeen forward. The match officials determined the contact occurred just outside the penalty area and VAR double-checked this.
Lennon shared his perspective on Premier Sports, saying: “When we saw it live we thought it was a handball inside the box. You can see the debate for both ways. If it’s outside the box then it’s not a penalty but if it’s inside the box… You can sympathise with Scales but you can also see where Aberdeen are coming form wanting the penalty.
“When I saw it live because it’s happening in that split second, I’m thinking ‘that looks a penalty to me’. His arm is out, he’s tried to flick it past him and it’s caught his arm
“You see the contact is actually just outside the box. I think Celtic got away with one there.”
Celtic will be keeping an eye on the score on Sunday afternoon to see if they will face Hears or Rangers in the May final.
