Leeds United celebrate equalising against Chelsea.placeholder image
Leeds United celebrate equalising against Chelsea. | Getty Images
Chelsea supporters were incensed not to see the second Leeds United goal at Stamford Bridge disallowed on Tuesday evening.
Leeds United levelled the scoreline against Chelsea on Tuesday night in controversial fashion after a melee in front of the Blues’ goal.
Liam Rosenior’s side looked to be cruising to victory against an in-form Whites outfit. A lively Joao Pedro latched onto a Cole Palmer through ball to put the hosts ahead after 24 minutes.
Chelsea then made it two shortly after the break when Palmer followed up last weekend’s hat-trick with a confident strike from the penalty spot after Pedro had been needlessly shoved over by Leeds United defender Jaka Bijol.
The Blues had just half an hour to see out the match but Daniel Farke turned to Noah Okafor from the Leeds United bench and the 25-year-old proved an agent of chaos. Farke’s side found their way back into the match when an overeager Moises Caicedo tripped Jayden Boygle, with Lukas Nmecha converting the penalty.
It was then Boygle again who made a nuisance of himself in the Chelsea box to get Josh Acheampong twisting and turning with 73 minutes on the clock. The Chelsea defender then hit the deck, taking Boygle with him before Robert Sanchez tried to get his body on the ball.
VAR explains why Leeds United goal not disallowed against Chelsea
Neither of the three players managed to intervene with the ball spilling into the path of Okafor, who had an easy tap-in. The Chelsea players looked to referee Robert Jones desperate for a foul to be given with two of their players on the turf.
A VAR review ensued but there was little to pick apart from the coming together in the box. There was, however, a cheer around the ground at Stamford Bridge when the replays appeared to show the ball hitting the arm of Boygle in the run-up.
Blues supporters were confident that VAR would chime in and chalk off the equaliser, but Jones simply restarted play without even making a trip to the monitor. Explaining why the handball wasn’t given, the Premier League Match Centre on X wrote: “The referee’s call of goal to Leeds United was checked and confirmed by VAR – with there deemed to be no handball offence by Bogle in the build-up.”
In other news, Arsenal dominate nominees for London Football Awards with Chelsea and Fulham players also recognised.
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