Celtic’s Champions League showdown against Atalanta will be handled by the referee who sent off TWO of their players in their opening defeat in the competition last season.
Bosnian whistler Irfan Peljto has been appointed by Uefa for the crunch clash in Italy as the Hoops look to bounce back from their 7-1 thrashing by Borussia Dortmund last time out.
He handled the Champions League clash between Club Brugge and Borussia Dortmund last month and the Nations League Group A showdown between Belgium and France last month. Peljto will be watched by Uefa refs observer Cuneyt Cakir from Turkey with assistants Senad Ibrisimbegovic and Davor Beljo and fourth official Antoni Bandic making up the team. Germans Soren Storks and Christian Dingert will be in the VAR room.
The 40-year-old will bring back unhappy memories for the Scottish Premiership champions after he flashed red cards to both Gustaf Lagerbielke and Odin Thiago Holm in a costly five minute spell when the Hoops went down 2-0 to Feyenoord in Rotterdam. Swedish stopper Lagerbielke, now on loan at FC Twente, was sent off for a second booking after catching Igor Paixao, although the Brazilian’s resulting penalty was saved by Joe Hart.
And Norwegian Holm was dismissed for a studs-up challenge – just 10 minutes after his introduction.
Rodgers admitted at the time Celtic paid the price for inexperience and said: “In the second half I’m really disappointed with the two sending offs and with nine men it becomes very difficult. The first one you just have to shepherd it through to the goalkeeper.
“You don’t have to get into the fight and it’s going to come through to Joe anyway so that’s just inexperience and Odin a fantastic young player, will learn from that. He’s very committed but at any level and in particular in European football you can’t go to ground and he made it easy for the referee.”