Chelsea won with one less man

Chelsea had to play with 10 men from the end of the first half due to Connor Gallagher's indirect red card, but still beat Brighton 3-2 in round 14 of the Premier League.

In the 45th minute, with Brighton leading 2-1, Chelsea lost a man. In an attempt to stop Billy Gilmour's run in midfield, Connor Gallagher tackled the ball from behind, but missed and knocked the opposing player down. Referee Craig Pawson immediately showed the Chelsea midfielder a second yellow card, which became a straight red. Gallagher had received his first card 14 minutes earlier, for a similar foul against Facundo Buonanotte.

Chelsea midfielder Connor Gallagher was sent off in the match against Brighton in round 14 of the Premier League on December 3. Photo: Reuters

This is the second consecutive match that Chelsea have lost a captain due to suspension. When they lost 1-4 to Newcastle in round 13, captain Reece James received a straight red card. à With first vice-captain Ben Chilwell out injured, Gallagher - second vice-captain - was given the captain's armband by coach Mauricio Pochettino against Brighton.

Despite losing a man, Chelsea still played resiliently and even widened the gap to 3-1 in the 65th minute with an accurate 11m kick by Enzo Fernandez. Two minutes earlier, Ukrainian striker Mykhailo Mudryk dribbled into the Brighton penalty area and was tripped by James Milner. After consulting VAR, referee Pawson determined that this was a foul, and awarded Chelsea a penalty.

However, the 10-on-11 situation combined with the heavy rain pouring down on Stamford Bridge made Chelsea gradually lose momentum towards the end of the match. Coach Pochettino stood absent-mindedly on the sidelines many times, especially during the 15 minutes of extra time, when he saw his players under terrible pressure and at times thought they could not protect the result.

Brighton pushed the tempo to turn things around and almost succeeded. With the trio of Kaoru Mitoma, Pascal Gross and Joao Pedro on the pitch from the 57th minute, they dominated possession, often at around 65% and put a lot of pressure on Chelsea's half. That effort was rewarded with a goal to reduce the score to 2-3 in the 90+2 minute, when Pedro headed in Milner's corner, past goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.

In the 90+10 minute, Brighton thought they had been awarded a penalty when Simon Adingra crossed the ball from the right and it hit Levi Colwill's hand. But VAR intervened and determined that the ball only hit the Chelsea defender's face and went out of bounds. On the sidelines, coach Pochettino did not hide his relief, while the fans at Stamford Bridge cheered as if celebrating a goal. If that had been a penalty, Chelsea would have likely been equalized and missed out on the much-needed home win.

* Continued update

Nhat Tao

Source link