Last week, Chelsea U19 beat Valencia U19 in rather controversial circumstances, advancing via a penalty kick shootout in which neither team actually missed a shot. But of course Valencia's first try was ruled out incorrectly, prompting the visitors to lodge a protest with UEFA afterwards. Football's governing body promised a verdict for today, and sure enough, word has come down from the mountain.
UEFA have rejected Valencia's appeal over their UEFA Youth League penalty shootout exit to Chelsea. The result stands.
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) February 29, 2016
Valencia had been hoping to replay at least the shootout, but according to reports in Spain, UEFA summarily dismissed the claims. UEFA's official website has not yet been updated with the verdicts, but there's no reason to doubt the veracity of the reports. There wasn't much precedent at all for such massive re-refereeing of a judgement call as Valencia were proposing. Clearly, goals should not be judgement calls, but goal-line technology has not been implemented in the UEFA Youth League yet.
So, Chelsea U19 are now offically-officially in the UEFA Youth League quarterfinals, where they will meet Ajax Amsterdam. UEFA's other decision of the day involved nullifying Dinamo Zagreb's win over Anderlecht after the Croatian team fielded an ineligible player. Anderlecht are on the same side of the bracket as Chelsea.
Both UEFA decisions today affect #CFCU19; their potential Semi Final if they beat Ajax is now against Barcelona or Anderlecht.
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) February 29, 2016
The quarterfinals are set to be played next week. Chelsea will be home once again and hopefully will advance without any further controversy...