Chelsea's trip to Qarabag marred by racist incident during Youth League match as Azerbaijani side send apology

Chelsea's youngsters ultimately eased to a 5-0 win over their Qarabag counterparts on Wednesday afternoon, but it took until the hour mark for the west London side to find the breakthrough in Azerbaijan. Sol Gordon opened the scoring for the Blues, before a quick-fire brace from Jesse Derry saw Chelsea dominate in the final 30 minutes.

Shumaira Mheuka and Frankie Runham added Chelsea's fourth and fifth late on to reflect their dominance over Qarabag. The Blues have now scored 19 goals in their opening four Youth League matches to leave them top of the league phase having won all four games so far.

However, victory over Qarabag was marred by alleged racist abuse from the home support after Gordon's opener. Ukrainian referee Dmytro Kubriak stopped the match for a few minutes following complaints from the Chelsea players, and while it looked as though the match would be abandoned, the English side finished the game and put the hosts to the sword.

Chelsea quickly issued a strongly worded statement following the incident, stating: "We are aware of an incident during today's Uefa Youth League match in Azerbaijan in which, after scoring, a number of our players were subjected to racist abuse from an individual in the crowd.

"Racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour are completely unacceptable and have no place in football or indeed in society. We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible.

"Our players have the full support of everyone at the club, and we have raised the incident immediately with the Uefa match delegate and home club: We expect this matter to be investigated fully under Uefa's disciplinary procedures.

"We are proud of the way our players and staff responded to the incident on the pitch, swiftly reporting it to the referee, and commend those for dealing with the matter professionally and appropriately in line with UEFA protocols."

Qarabag moved quickly to apologise for the abuse, with a club spokesperson stating: "We are sorry about this incident. It does not reflect the values of our club. We will investigate it thoroughly."

UEFA, meanwhile, will wait for the referee's report before taking any action against the Azerbaijani side. Qarabag were previously reprimanded by UEFA, who banned a former club official for racist behaviour.

In November 2020, UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body opted to ban Nurlan Ibrahimov, who had previously acted as the club's press officer, from exercising any football-related activity for life. Ibrahimov had allegedly made discriminating comments about Armenians, which were subsequently deleted.

The Football Federation of Armenia had called for Qarabag to be expelled from European competition, while the club itself had it opened an internal investigation into the matter. UEFA also fined Qarabag €100,000 for the incident. 

Chelsea's men's team, meanwhile, were held to a 2-2 draw with Qarabag on Wednesday evening. Estevao had put the Blues ahead in the first half, only for Leandro Andrade and Marko Jankovic to respond in the 19th and 29th minute, respectively. Alejandro Garnacho levelled the Champions League clash early in the second half but the Blues were unable to add a third with the spoils shared in Azerbaijan.

The result means Chelsea have lost only one of their last eight in all competitions, winning six times in that process. Enzo Maresca's side have collected seven points from their opening four European games, leaving the west London side level with Sporting and Qarabag, and one point behind rivals Tottenham, in the table.

Chelsea welcome Wolves this weekend as they look to earn back-to-back league wins for the third time this season following their 1-0 win at Spurs last weekend.