Bellingham unhappy with ‘joke’ refereeing in defeat to Chelsea
Chelsea won due to the contentious awarding of a penalty for handball and the ordering of a retake for encroachment
Jude Bellingham called the refereeing in Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League loss to Chelsea a “joke,” but warned that he would not talk himself into another fine.
Dortmund took a 1-0 lead to Stamford Bridge for the second leg on Tuesday after Karim Adeyemi’s goal at Signal Iduna Park gave them the edge in the round of 16 tie.
However, Raheem Sterling pulled level on aggregate in the 43rd minute, before Marius Wolf was adjudged to have handled Ben Chilwell’s cross in the Dortmund box from close range shortly after the break.
Kai Havertz hit the post with his first penalty, but a retake was ordered after an alleged encroachment by a Dortmund player, and Havertz made no mistake with the second spot-kick, sending Alexander Meyer the wrong way as Chelsea held on to defeat Dortmund.
Bellingham, who was fined €40,000 (£35,665) by the German Football Association (DFB) in 2021 for criticizing referee Felix Zwayer, was unhappy with both the penalty decision and the retake ruling, 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.”
Dortmund head coach Edin Terzic was keen to point out his team’s flaws rather than blame the referee, even though he felt it was a close call that went against his team.
“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 cited Chelsea’s massive transfer spending as proof of his team’s ability to compete at the highest level.
“Fair play to Chelsea and congratulations,” Terzic added. “It was two very tight games and 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, we want to compete with Chelsea on the matchday and I think we did it twice.”
