Warnock: Leeds wouldn’t have been awarded penalty had late foul happened in Chelsea box
Stephen Warnock has insisted Leeds United would not have been awarded a penalty had that late found happened in the Chelsea box.
Former FIFA referee Dermot Gallagher was providing his expert opinion on Sky Sports Ref Watch, and while he believes the Whites deserved to concede the spot-kick on Saturday (11 December) after Mateusz Klich brought down Antonio Rudiger, Warnock was bemused by the German’s manner of winning it.
The Blues secured a 3-2 win at Stamford Bridge as a result after Jorginho converted the late kick, but debates have raged on since on whether the officials made the right call by awarding it in the first place.
Gallagher said: “It’s a penalty. There is no need to make the tackle, Rudiger does what he should do, he gets between the player and the ball and the player goes through the back of him, it’s a foul.”
Warnock retorted: “If that was at the other end, they [Leeds] do not get it at Stamford Bridge, 100 per cent they do not get it.
“A 6ft 4in player should no go down like that and you will get contact when a ball comes into a penalty box like that. But to go down in the way he did, that was poor.”
Unbelievable
Rudiger went down like a pack of cards, and it was surprising to see him react like that under minimal contact from the Leeds midfielder.
The fact that the verdict has divided opinions speaks volumes, and Warnock is right to ask if the Whites would have been awarded a penalty like that had it happened in the Blues 18-yard box at the closing stages of the game with the result still 2-2.
Leeds will be right to feel hard done by after what happened, but they cannot reverse the decision and will need to quickly move on.
They face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday (14 December), and will be hoping to bounce back from weekend’s painful defeat.
The Elland Road outfit took four points off Pep Guardiola’s side last season, beating them at the Etihad, and they will fancy their chances of repeating those heroics again.
Leeds will need to be on top of their game for that to happen, though, and leaving with a result will do their morale a lot of good ahead of the festive fixtures.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites have mapped out plans to avoid relegation scrap as January transfer budget claim emerges.