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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Paul Clarke

Shocking Cardiff City v Chelsea mistakes by officials leave pundits incredulous

Cardiff City were robbed of victory against Chelsea after some astonishing mistakes by referee Craig Pawson and his assistants.

The Bluebirds were denied two penalties, while Chelsea scored a clear offside goal in the 84th minute to draw level and saw defender Antonio Rudiger somehow escape a red card.

The Bluebirds, who had led 1-0, eventually lost the game 2-1 in the final minutes.

You can read full details of all the incidents here.

Cardiff City v Chelsea Post Match Reaction

Focusing on Cesar Azpilicueta's goal which should never have been, Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness couldn't believe it.

"You’d be devastated," he said.

"On a good day as far as they were concerned Chelsea weren’t at it but somehow they’ve been able to win it. They’ll be extremely angry because it wasn’t a difficult decision to get right.

"Let's look at it.

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"There’s a couple of passes here. See when that ball comes in now. The linesman must be looking at that thinking he’s offside I’ll keep my eye on him but he doesn’t. What else could he be looking at, there’s no one obstructing his view, he’s clearly offside when the ball is played and a split second later.

"It doesn’t matter. He’s got a clear view, he’s looking across. There’s no bodies between him and Azpilicueta so he must get it right.

"That is a very easy decision for a linesman to give. Where does your focus go, what else can you be looking at? He’s not leaning to look around a defender.

Fellow pundit Robbie Keane added: "How he hasn’t seen that I‘ll never know. Full credit to Cardiff they were magnificent today.

"Graeme and I spoke off air, as soon as that first goal went in we said Chelsea are going to win this game."

Video shows Neil Warnock stare down officials after sickening Cardiff City loss to Chelsea  

Former England striker Ian Wright summed it up by tweeting: "Exhausting watching our officials getting it so wrong! You work all week to come up against a team that is vastly better than you only to be undone because of decisions like that. I don’t care how amusing the post match press conferences will be - that’s not what it’s about!"

Fans were also enraged by what they saw, with many incredulous at Pawson's decision to allow the goal.

The defeat leaves Cardiff five points adrift of safety after yesterday's wins for Burnley and Southampton.

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