Joe Cole and Peter Crouch praise ‘brave’ decision NOT to give Chelsea a penalty

Both Joe Cole and Peter Crouch were full of praise for referee Serdar Gozubuyuk after the referee stood by his original decision despite being sent to the pitch monitor in Chelsea's Conference League clash with Heidenheim.

Chelsea were tied 0–0 at half-time in the Conference League, the first time they had gone into the break without a lead in the league, before Christopher Nkunku broke the deadlock shortly afterwards.

Heidenheim had an own goal disallowed for offside, before Mykhailo Mudryk doubled the lead in the 86th minute with a brilliant first effort to certainly bring the points back to West London.

The Blues were hampered for the most part by Heidenheim, who were playing an English side for the first time in their history, but thought they had a golden opportunity to cross the line in the first half.

With 33 minutes left on the clock, Mykhailo Mudryk thought he had earned a penalty for his team, but referee Gozubuyuk was not convinced.

However, the VAR seemed to think differently and advised the Dutch official to go to the monitor and reconsider his decision – something that usually results in the call being reversed.

But on this occasion, Gozubuyuk stuck to his guns and ruled that the contact with the Ukrainian was not enough to merit a penalty.

Both Cole and Crouch were full of praise for the Dutch referee in the studio at half-time and applauded his decision.

“We don't see it often, so thank the referee, he did it perfectly,” Cole told TNT Sports.

“Mudryk has it in his pocket, and look at this electric pace as he drives in. Awkward from centre-half, but when you see it from the other angle, he's not really touching it, it's a clip, there's not enough.

'Mudryk goes down theatrically. It's the right decision for him, and I'm glad he went hearsay (sic) to the monitor and stuck to his guns.”

Crouch fully agreed, suggesting Mudryk 'initiated' the contact but the referee was right in his 'brave' decision.

“It's brave of the referee, when they go there you often think they're going to give it automatically,” he added.

“I thought he came to the right decision there, I don't think there was enough. Mudryk stuck his shoe in his shin and initiated it. It wasn't enough for a penalty and well done to the referee.'

During the match on Thursday evening, the home fans also held up a banner to their visitors.

'Let's get Brexit done. Send Chelsea home tonight,” it said in English, held across the width of the pitch.

Heidenheim fans held up another copy that read “God Save the King,” in front of an image of their manager Frank Schmidt wearing a crown.

The two clubs both made a positive start to their respective Europa Conference League campaigns ahead of the match in southern Germany, with both taking three wins out of three before kick-off.

Enzo Maresca and Co are considered among the favorites to go all the way this season and boast arguably the strongest squad in the league – so strong that Cole Palmer was not immediately registered to maintain his fitness in the long term .