Griffiths on the handbags and silencing the doubters

Leigh Griffiths was thrown into the spotlight in Kazakhstan following Wednesday’s game against Astana, but not for his late goal.

The Celtic striker scored a vital away goal for Brendan Rodgers’ side but it was an incident which took place off the ball minutes earlier that is the talking point.

Replays of the incident were posted on Youtube and tweeted by Astana, showing the striker pushing (not punching) Igor Shitov before the Belarus defending flung himself to the floor in dramatic fashion.

Others have had a different interpretation, but the Italian referee chose to book the 25-year-old in what he called “a bit of handbags.”

As quoted by the Glasgow Evening Times, he said:

There was a bit of handbags and one of their men went down. Both of us could have been booked to be honest. The ref could have let it go but I was the one who got booked. But I managed to silence the crowd a few minutes later so it worked out fine.

Celtic’s crucial away goal came after 78 minutes as a result Patrick Roberts’ relentless pressing, which forced the Astana defence to concede possession before he picked out Griffiths, who fired the ball home from just inside the 18-yard box.

They fell behind following some poor marking and goalkeeping from a corner on 19 minutes, but dug in to earn a draw against a side who drew against the likes of Atletico Madrid, Benfica and Galatasaray in last season’s Champions League at home.

Griffiths also added that he believes many people wrote Celtic off before their 6,00-mile trip to Kazakhstan to face last year’s Champions League group stage participants.

Everybody said this team was in the Champions League last season and they would be too strong and good for us, but we showed that we can cope with that and on any given day we are a match for anybody.

Rodgers’ side will look to finish off the tie next Wednesday at Paradise and progress to the play-off round for the Champions League group stages.