Chelsea’s second goal was a controversial call from VAR, but Jude Bellingham doesn’t care to comment lest he is fined once again
Jude Bellingham called the officials’ decisions in Dortmund’s Champions League defeat against Chelsea a “joke”. But he didn’t elaborate on his comments any further in the fear of getting fined once again.
Chelsea’s second goal against Dortmund on Tuesday, which took them to the Champions League quarter-finals, was a controversial one. After Raheem Sterling’s opener, Dortmund wing-back Marius Wolf was adjudged to have made a handball on Ben Chilwell’s cross. The decision went to VAR and eventually, referee Makkelie reviewed it on a screen and gave the penalty.
The decision didn’t go down well with Dortmund players since it was a soft penalty, to say the least. Kai Havertz took the penalty and hit the bar. But, to add insult to injury, Makkelie and VAR decided that Dortmund players were rushing in the box before the penalty was taken. So he ordered Chelsea to retake the penalty which Havertz scored.
Bellingham calls Chelsea’s penalty a ‘joke’
Bellingham was once fined €40,000 (£35,665) by the German Football Association in 2021 for criticizing referee Felix Zwayer. The 19-year-old was unhappy with both the decision to award a penalty and the ruling of a retake, blaming Havertz’s run-up for his team-mates edging into the area.
“From where I was it looked like he was pretty close and I’m not sure what more he can do with his hands,” Bellingham told BT Sport. “It’s a yard or two away.
“I don’t want to get in trouble, I’ve paid enough to them lot.
“That in itself was disappointing, and then the fact they’ve had a retake I think is a joke. For every penalty, especially when you have such a slow run-up, there’s going to be people encroaching into the box by a yard or so.
“But that’s the game I suppose, he’s made a decision and we have to live with it.”
Unlike Bellingham, Dortmund boss Terzic was more focused on his team’s performance rather than the refereeing.
“I’m responsible for the performance of our team and my performance,” Terzic said. “I don’t want to talk about the referee.
“It’s now the third time your [media] colleagues are asking me the question. I think it was a tight call and a harsh decision but that’s how it goes.”
Despite the defeat, Terzic was proud of his players and pointed to Chelsea’s huge spending in the transfer market as evidence of his team competing at the top level.
“Fair play to Chelsea and congratulations,” Terzic added. “It was two very tight games. In the end, inches decide whether you go to the next round or not.
“We have enough quality in the team and that’s the good thing. These two games, this is what we want. We don’t want to compete with Chelsea in the transfer market. But we want to compete with Chelsea on the matchday and I think we did it twice.”
