'Reckless' Celtic star put in Willie Collum's line of fire as Mourinho names star that can make difference vs Rangers

Celtic turn their attention to Scottish Cup duties as they prepare for a highly-anticipated quarter-final clash at home to third place Hibs.

The Hoops are unbeaten at Parkhead in all domestic competitions this season and boast both the best defence and attacking record in the entirety of Scottish football.

Having twice won the domestic treble during Brendan Rodgers’ first stint at Parkhead, the Glasgow giants now have their sights on achieving the feat against but will be wary of the threat posed by David Gray’s resurgent side who defeated them in their last visit to Easter Road in February.

Ahead of an exciting Scottish Cup encounter we take a look at the latest headlines from Celtic as well as the build-up to Rangers second leg clash with Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce as they look to finish off the job at Ibrox and book their place in the Europa League quarter-final.

'Reckless' Celtic star put in Willie Collum's line of fire

Former Scottish Premiership referee Willie Collum has broken his silence on whether Alistair Johnston was 'in or out' at Easter Road.

Johnston laid on an equaliser for the Hoops against Hibs last month as Daizen Maeda found the net from close-range before the goal was subsequently ruled out for going out of play in controversial circumstances as a frustrated Brendan Rodgers accused the officials of guess work. The KMI panel ruled the decision was incorrect and now referees chief Collum has had his say.

He analysed the incident on the latest episode of the Scottish FA VAR review show with Gordon Duncan where the VAR audio was also aired.

Collum explained: "The starting point is - what is the on-field decision? The on-field decision is the assistant referee keeps the flag down and a goal is scored. So as far as the assistant referee is concerned the ball has not gone out of play.

"You hear the VAR at one point saying you know it looks like the ball's out of play from a particular angle and the AVAR correctly says 'I don't think you can be conclusive there'. Then an angle appears from the main camera which is zoomed in and you hear a reaction.

"However what I want to be very clear about in this clip and we coach the VARs and the AVARs to be to be certain about this. You need 100% conclusive evidence to disallow the goal here and prove that the ball is over the goal line and in this case that's not possible.

"It's not possible to prove categorically that the ball has crossed the goal line fully because we know from previous examples at World Cups a ball can look out you know from certain angles but then when you look at the camera above, a slight part, a millimetre of the ball can be overhanging that goal line and that's enough to say the ball's in play.

"So on this occasion, for us, we expect the on-field decision to be supported and a goal awarded. I would also say if the assistant referee had flagged here and said in his opinion the ball had crossed the line for a goal kick we would also expect that decision to be supported because there's no 100% conclusive evidence.It's impossible to prove otherwise.”

Johnston was also the subject of controversy for a mistimed tackle in the penalty area when defending an attack during a more recent 5-2 victory over St Mirren. Collum says the Hoops man was fortunate not to get booked and also adds that he feels it was a clear penalty.

He explained: "For us this is a penalty kick and a reckless challenge from the Celtic player. There are fine margins when it comes to decisions like this and for me there is a clear difference between touching the ball and playing the ball. "The direction of the ball doesn't really change and then there's reckless contact on the player. This should have been a penalty kick awarded on the pitch and if not it should go onto an onfield review."

Jose Mourinho backs Fenerbahce star to make a difference in the second leg

Turkish title hopefuls Fenerbache are recuperating after a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Rangers in the first leg of their Europa League round-of-16 clash.The Istanbul outfit failed to deal with the constant counter-attacking threat of the Light Blues and now have a mountain to climb as they travel to a vociferous Ibrox to try and bridge the gap in the second leg.

However, Mourinho, who has won this competition with FC Porto and Manchester United while also reaching the final with AS Roma, has not lost his faith and claims 30-cap Brazil international Fred could give his team exactly what they were missing in the first leg as he takes his team to Glasgow with a point to prove.

Speaking ahead of the match at Ibrox the Portuguese serial winner explained, via Rangers News: ”To speak about Fred is something that I don’t like by my nature but the team was playing fantastic with him in that position there,” said Mourinho.

”Then if somebody later wants to ask me do I think it’s over, no, I don’t think it’s over. I think there is 90 or 120 minutes to play.”

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