{"id":875539,"date":"2025-10-05T22:21:31","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T03:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/worst-decision-ex-chelsea-forward-blasts-var-officials-over-kelechi-iheanachos-disallowed-goal\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:21:31","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T03:21:31","slug":"worst-decision-ex-chelsea-forward-blasts-var-officials-over-kelechi-iheanachos-disallowed-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/05\/worst-decision-ex-chelsea-forward-blasts-var-officials-over-kelechi-iheanachos-disallowed-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWorst decision\u201d \u2013 Ex-Chelsea forward blasts VAR officials over Kelechi Iheanacho\u2019s disallowed goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soccer <\/p>\n

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\"Soccer<\/p>\n

Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic goes off in celebration, Chris Sutton. [Photo Credit\/ Imago].<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Super Eagles and Celtic<\/a> forward Kelechi Iheanacho made the headlines after his side’s 2-0 UEFA Europa League loss to Braga, Soccernet.ng reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former Manchester City man was hoping to continue his rich vein of form with the Hoops at Celtic Park, but his goal was wrongly disallowed.<\/p>\n

Iheanacho collected a loose ball, lifted it over a defender and drove it beyond Lukas Hornicek in the Braga goal. Still, German referee Tobias Stieler ruled the strike out, judging the ball had brushed Iheanacho\u2019s arm in the build-up.<\/p>\n

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Kelechi Iheanacho looked to have gotten Celtic back into the game\u2026 but VAR rules out his strike for handball \u274c<\/p>\n

@tntsports<\/a> & @discoveryplusUK<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/kTLpdakAqE<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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After the game, Iheanacho was livid<\/a>, stating his side were robbed of the opportunity to bring themselves back into the match as they were just a goal down at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat was an awful decision from them. The ball didn\u2019t hit my hand; it hit my face. It was an awful decision, and it changed the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have been back in it. We are disappointed. I don\u2019t know what they did there. The referee knows it wasn\u2019t a handball. It changed the game, and hopefully, they can sort that out,\u201d the ex-Sevilla man fumed.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Soccer
Kelechi Iheanacho helps Cameron Carter-Vickers to his feet during the UEFA Europa League match at Celtic Park, Copyright: ImagoxFredxPalmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Soccer Chris Sutton blasts VAR over Iheanacho<\/a> goal<\/h2>\n

The Super Eagles forward wasn’t the only one who was upset about the decision. Former Chelsea and England forward, Sutton, in his column for the Daily Record<\/a><\/strong>, described the act as \u2018shocking’.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe disallowed goal was shocking. It might be the worst VAR decision I\u2019ve ever seen, and Kelechi Iheanacho\u2019s goal should have stood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it have changed the game? Quite possibly. Celtic were on top at that stage, and going level would have built on the momentum, and they could have gone on to win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither way, there\u2019s just a chronic lack of creativity. Sebastian Tounekti has shown promise and is prepared to take on his man.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still about the link-up with the rest, and that is going to take time. Iheanacho has come in and done okay, but he\u2019s still clearly short of fitness,\u201d the 52-year-old wrote.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Soccer
Kelechi Iheanacho breaks free and scores only for VAR to later disallow the goal for handball during the UEFA Europa League 2025\/26, Celtic FC vs SC Braga, Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland. Copyright: ImagoxColinxPoultney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers, was equally incensed by the decision to chalk off Iheanacho\u2019s goal, revealing the club have asked UEFA for clarification.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor the life of me, I don\u2019t understand why it wasn\u2019t given because it\u2019s not even close to being handball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still waiting on the explanation for that. It did serve as a catalyst [for Braga to go on and win the game].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t understand why the referee isn\u2019t asked to go and have a look at that. If you look at it once, twice, and I\u2019m assuming the people in the VAR room have looked at it more than that, there\u2019s absolutely no way it hits him there,\u201d the former Leicester City boss opined.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Soccer
KELECHI IHEANACHO celebrates in the Crvena zvezda vs Celtic Glasgow UEFA Europa League match at Rajko Mitic Stadium, Belgrade, 24.09.2025. Copyright: ImagoxMarkoxMetla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Celtic are still unbeaten domestically and can make things right when they take on Kilmarnock in the league tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"<!--Adefolahan Guerreiro” src=”https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f64d35abfd960f4a5a400c4bb517f7f0be6c48b655560fbdd37e59d9fc9ca58?s=80&d=mm&r=g” height=”80″ width=”80″ loading=”lazy” decoding=”async”>\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tAdefolahan Guerreiro\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAdefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria.<\/p>\n

With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience.<\/p>\n

He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, Sikiru Alimi, Sodiq Ismaila and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>Adefolahan Guerreiro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soccer Kelechi Iheanacho of Celtic goes off in celebration, Chris Sutton. [Photo Credit\/ Imago]. Super Eagles and Celtic forward Kelechi Iheanacho made the headlines after his side’s 2-0 UEFA Europa League loss to Braga, Soccernet.ng reports. The former Manchester City man was hoping to continue his rich vein of form with the Hoops at Celtic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":875540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[749,2005,2097],"tags":[10521,9827],"class_list":{"0":"post-875539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-decision","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-worst","10":"tag-decision","11":"tag-worst"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}