Noni Madueke shocks Cole Palmer in ‘ridiculous’ Chelsea incident
Noni Madueke produced a “ridiculous” moment to deny Cole Palmer a certain goal for Chelsea in their win at Leicester City on Saturday afternoon, in the eyes of Darren Fletcher and Lucy Ward.
With 54 minutes on the clock and the visitors leading 1-0, they missed a huge chance to double their advantage due to the England winger’s accidental intervention.
A curled shot from Nicolas Jackson was parried away by Mads Hermansen in the Foxes’ goal. That saw the ball fall to Palmer at the back post, with a tap in looking a certainty.
Madueke though was stood in front of him on the goalline, and although he tried to jump over the shot it still hit his foot, which saw the ball bounce away to safety.
Reacting to the moment on commentary on TNT Sports (1:46pm), Fletcher said: “It’s blocked on the line by Madueke, astonishing, Palmer can’t believe he didn’t score. Madueke! It was a goal, he saved a goal!”
Ward then added: “No way… he tried his best Madueke to get away from the ball, he was thinking Palmer’s going to put it along the floor so I’ll jump. How’s your luck? And all you can do is smile to be fair!”
Watching another replay of the incident moments later, pundit Ward added (1:50pm): “Madueke’s trying to predict what Palmer does. Ridiculous!”
A scarcely believable moment Chelsea got away with at Leicester
Football Insider Opinion
It is hard to get your head around the fact that Palmer was unable to put the ball in the back of the net from this moment at the King Power Stadium.
With the goal seemingly gaping and the form that the England international is in, it seemed inevitable that he would double the lead for his side in a game where he almost suffered a season-ending injury.
However, his Chelsea teammate’s intervention is not something anyone would have seen coming, although it feels hard to criticise Madueke too much.
It did look as though Palmer simply had to roll the ball into the net, so it made sense for the 22-year-old to try and jump over it.
Indeed, the block was certainly not intentional, and both players were able to laugh about it after the event, showing spirits are still high.
That may not have been the case for Chelsea though, had they not seen this game out for a 2-1 win, after Jordan Ayew had netted a late penalty for Leicester but the Foxes didn’t have time for an equaliser to lift the pressure on Steve Cooper.
In other news, Chelsea fans have been left furious by new Cole Palmer footage.
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