Chelsea's UEFA Youth League clash with Valencia ended in farcical scenes after a controversial penalty shootout. The Round of 16 match ended 1-1 at the Chelsea training ground with the game going to penalties. Charlie Colkett put Chelsea in front in the shootout before Alberto Gil's controversial spot kick. The Valencia youngster found the stanchion in the bottom left corner of the goal and turned away in celebration. However, referee Adrien Jaccottet (SUI) and AR Vital Jobin (SUI) adjudged the ball to have hit the post.
Replays clearly showed the ball had crossed the line as Gil and his team-mates protested. The decision proved costly too as all other penalties were scored, meaning Chelsea won the shootout 5-4. After the game, Valencia's players and staff ran onto the pitch to confront referee Adrien Jaccottet, urging him to check the TV footage, but his decision stood.
There was a precedent in the European football in 2015, when UEFA decided that a decisive penalty kick from the women's U-19 match Norway – England shall be repeated a few days later. With Norway winning 2-1, England was awarded a penalty kick in min. 96. They scored the penalty kick, but the referee, Marija Kurtes (GER), disallowed the goal because one England player entered the penalty area before the ball was kicked and awarded an indirect free kick. Norway played out the final minute of stoppage time and won the match 2-1. The Laws of the Game state that the penalty kick should have been retaken and UEFA said it had no choice but to order the final moments of the match to be replayed from the point of the penalty kick.
In 2005, FIFA ordered an entire match to be replayed when confronted with similar circumstances, to the detriment of the side denied the second chance at a penalty. Uzbekistan was leading Bahrain 1-0 in the first leg of a World Cup qualifying play-off when they were awarded a penalty kick, which was converted. But the Japanese referee Toshimitsu Yoshida disallowed it for encroachment and awarded an indirect free kick to Bahrain. The match finished 1-0 to Uzbekistan, but FIFA ruled that the match must be replayed, despite protests from Uzbekistan, who wanted the game to restart from the 38th minute with the penalty kick. In the restaged game, Bahrain drew 1-1 and that away goal proved decisive in the tie, though they lost the subsequent intercontinental play-off to Trinidad & Tobago, who qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Source: Mirror/Super Deporte