RateTheRef

"An interesting evening all round at

Wednesday 3rd August 2016
Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round
Celtic 2 v 1 FC Astana
István Kovács (Romania); Vasile Florin Marinescu, Mihai Ovidiu Artene. 4thers Pavel Cristian Balaj


...

. At the end of the match AR2 made the slight error of heading to collect the ball, rather than straight to his boss, who for a moment was left to face the wrath of a few Astana players alone. The arrival of a Celtic player to shake their (and his) hands helped the situation as did the arrival of a track-suited figure, perhaps an Astana coach, who shepherded the players away. Eventually Mr Kovács received handshakes from the Celtic players and a number of Astana players too, but then there was a curious stand off, with two Astana players standing apart a dozen metres away from the two officials, with the track-suited gentleman covering the gap between them. A couple of times the officials took a step towards the tunnel, but thought better of it, but they did eventually make their exit. The two Astana players stayed for rather longer, but have probably gone home by now."


Does he recall this incident, which looked potentially quite menacing - though ultimately there was no aggression - and was he surprised at Celtic's failure to provide bodyguards to escort the officials from the pitch?