MARTIN O’NEILL revealed Tomas Cvancara pinched the ball off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain as he volunteered to take the crucial penalty-kick against Motherwell yesterday.
The Parkhead encounter was stalemated at 1-1 in the 69th minute when referee John Beaton was instructed by VAR to review a flashpoint incident when Daizen Maeda was flattened by Emmanuel Longelo.
After a lengthy look at the touchline screen, the match official returned to the pitch, pointed to the spot and flashed a red card at the Well culprit.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, who took the first kick a week ago in the Scottish Cup quarter-final shoot-out triumph at Ibrox, prepared to place the ball on the spot.
ON THE SPOT…Tomas Cvancara sums up the situation before his nonchalant penalty-kick.
However, Cvancara, scorer of the fourth and deciding kick against Danny Rohl’s team, elected to accept the responsibility and the former Arsenal, Liverpool and England international midfielder stepped aside.
Last week, the towering Czech Republic ace buried his effort low to Jack Butland’s right.
Calum Ward had obviously done his homework. As Cvancara shaped to take his kick, the Well keeper took off for his right.
On this occasion, though, the on-loan Borussia Monchengladbach frontman nonchalantly chipped the ball down the middle to give the champions the lead.
Yang Hyun-jun completed the recovery with his second strike of the afternoon when he raced clear to thunder a third behind Ward.
PARADISE…Tomas Cvancara plants a kiss on the turf after netting an immaculate penalty-kick in the 3-1 victory over Motherwell at Parkhead.
O’Neill, speaking to Celtic TV, praised Cvancara for his character and said: “Tomas took the ball off Alex, believe it or not.
“So, that was big, because there is everything riding on the game.
“He took the penalty and he had a bit of confidence from scoring on Sunday.
“But it was a big moment because, like a lot of us, we still have to win the crowd over.
“So, well done to him and that was a great win for us.”
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