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Noni Madueke breaks silence on Aston Villa VAR controversy after Chelsea winner ruled out

Noni Madueke of Chelsea in action
Noni Madueke of Chelsea in action -Credit:2024 Getty Images


Noni Madueke has doubled down on his criticism of the VAR decision that saw Chelsea's late goal against Aston Villa disallowed.

The Blues were on the brink of a thrilling comeback at Villa Park on Saturday when Axel Disasi appeared to have secured a 3-2 win for Mauricio Pochettino's side in stoppage time.

Having battled back from a two-goal deficit, Chelsea's elation was abruptly halted as VAR intervention led referee Craig Pawson to rule out Disasi's goal for an alleged foul by Benoit Badiashile.

Madueke was among those to confront the match officials after the full-time whistle and could not hide his anger when speaking after the full-time whistle. "Should it have been three points? Yes. Do I think the goal should have stood? Yes. Nothing else to say about the situation," the former PSV star remarked.

"We need to play better at times in phases of the game. We have an abundance of quality and when we fire we're a match for any team. The last game was terrible. For 70 minutes today the team were outstanding. It's a process. I'm proud of the team today. We beat them here earlier in the season as well. We wanted to come here and win but it wasn't to be."

Madueke, along with teammates Disasi and Nicolas Jackson, confronted the officials to dispute the call and a number of Mauricio Pochettino's coaching staff had to step in to defuse this heated situation. The Chelsea manager was also left bewildered by the call and went as far as to say that VAR is 'damaging' the Premier League.

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"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed," he remarked. "Two different things, the referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal and then going to the VAR to confirm. The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous.

"It is difficult to accept, these type of things in the semi-final (FA Cup tie with Manchester City) two weeks ago it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee he didn't check it. It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.

"They said it was foul and if you see the challenge what happened if we go into every single challenge like this it is going to be a foul and we wouldn't finish the game with 11 (players). We can talk about the performance or the decision - it is damaging the game."