Neville slams Valencia youth shootout decision

Valencia coach Gary Neville expressed amazement after his club were eliminated from the UEFA Youth League by Chelsea amid a penalty shootout controversy.

The last-16 tie at Chelsea’s Cobham training ground, which was enjoyed in the stands by club captain John Terry, finished 1-1 and Charlie Colkett netted the hosts’ first penalty.

Alberto Gil stepped up for Valencia and steered a kick towards the bottom-left corner, which beat Chelsea goalkeeper Bradley Collins and crossed the line, but bounced back out via the lower stanchion.

Remarkably, the match officials did not award the goal, much to the understandable displeasure of Valencia’s players.

No other kicks were missed, leaving the visitors to remonstrate furiously with Swiss referee Adrien Jaccottet after Tammy Abrahams scored decisively for Chelsea – and Neville was aghast.

Scandolous!!! Can’t believe what I’ve just seen…. https://t.co/58aURVS41t

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) February 23, 2016

The former Manchester United and England defender tweeted: “Scandalous!!! Can’t believe what I’ve just seen…”

Neville linked to a post from his club’s Twitter account voicing similar dismay, while first-team players Jose Gaya, Paco Alcacer, Antonio Barragan and Ruben Vezo also tweeted in criticism of Jaccottet’s decision.

Chelsea had opened the scoring through Jay DaSilva, although Valencia quickly levelled through a Carlos Soler penalty before substitute Ismael Martinez missed another spot-kick with seven minutes of normal time remaining.

Inexplicable lo que ha pasado en la @UEFAYouthLeague. Mucho animo!!!!!

— Paco Alcácer (@paco_alcacer) February 23, 2016