HAVE SOME OF MATT
Rangers star Fabio Silva’s ‘mind games’ tactics noticed before Matt O’Riley’s Celtic penalty miss
The tactics may well have paid off
MATT O'RILEY insists he was stuck in two minds and that's why he missed his penalty against Rangers.
But could it be that a Gers star's mind games succeeded in putting him off?
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Midfield ace O'Riley, who scored the first goal in Celtic's 2-1 win over Rangers this afternoon, tangled with Mohamed Diomande in the box just a few minutes into the second half and referee Willie Collum pointed to the spot.
After being called for a VAR review, Collum stuck with his decision on the field and O'Riley stepped up to hit the penalty.
But he missed from 12 yards and the scores remained at 2-1, giving Rangers some hope (that they clung to until the very end).
Celtic hero Chris Sutton noticed on commentary for Sky Sports at the time that there had been mind games in the build up to the penalty being hit.
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Fabio Silva was spotted on camera walking up to O'Riley and saying something to his face with his mouth covered, which was met by a smirk from the Denmark international.
Silva continued to speak at O'Riley before the Hoops star shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the spot once the penalty call was confirmed.
But moments later, Gers goalkeeper Jack Butland had parried away his effort.
Sutton said at the time: "It's a weak penalty, but it's mind games during a long wait for Matt O'Riley.
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"A little stutter and Butland goes the right way."
However, some Rangers fans didn't see it as mind games.
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Indeed, punters on Twitter (X) shared their anger at what they felt was Silva simply laughing and smiling away with O'Riley in the heat of battle.
One said in dismay: "Silva smiling and joking with O'Riley after penalty given!"
Another said: "Silva having a laugh with O'Riley while waiting for the penalty check. WTF?"
Whatever the case, O'Riley admitted live on TV that he penalty was "pretty s***" and that he was overthinking when he stepped up.
He said: “We probably made it a little bit hard for ourselves again and I probably helped with that with a pretty s**t penalty, but other than that it was good.
“It was thinking too much, to be honest.
“I practiced it yesterday and probable got in two minds, so more to learn from. I won’t do that again.
“I kind of had a plan and was waiting for him to move, but he stayed up for quite a long time. I probably just needed slightly bigger balls than I showed there.
“I’ll study the penalty today and see what I can do better."
He added: “It wasn’t the run up that I practised on Friday.
“For whatever reason, I got stuck in two minds."
O'Riley also revealed he was confused by the fact the incident went to a VAR check.
The midfielder was in no doubt that he was fouled legitimately.
“I was really confused, to be honest, because I thought it was really obvious the pen," he said.
“I got clipped and I thought it was really obvious.
“I don’t know if VAR tried to overturn it but I thought it was quite strange.
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“There are no excuses when you miss a penalty.
“But of course it a quite a long wait.”
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