Alvaro Morata endures a night of despair as Chelsea flop bags a HAT-TRICK of offside goals
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On another night, Alvaro Morata could have been a happy man indeed. As it was, the Juventus striker was left frustrated as he saw three goals ruled out for offside in the defeat to Barcelona.
Andrea Pirlo’s side hosted the LaLiga giants in a crunch Group G clash in the Champions League on Wednesday, with both sides looking to stamp their authority on the group.
But it was Ronald Koeman’s side that came out on top, with goals from Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi enough to earn the visitors a confidence-boosting win in Turin.
Alvaro Morata had a game to forget in the Champions League as he saw a hat trick disallowed
The Chelsea flop netted past Neto after 15 minutes but was deemed to have been offside
The Italian champions were made to look second best throughout, with a late red card for Merih Demiral and a spot kick against Federico Bernardeschi piling more misery on the Old Lady.
And for Morata, it was a night where the former Chelsea and Real Madrid star could feasibly have walked away with the match ball, had the Spaniard just timed his runs better.
Just one minute after Dembele opened the scoring for Barcelona, Morata had the ball in the net after slotting home with the second bite of the cherry.
However, the linesman’s flag was up for offside, with the 28-year-old ahead of the last man when Juan Cuadrado played the decisive through ball.
The Spanish striker found the back of the net after half an hour, but again was deemed offside
Morata thought he had finally got his goal in the second half but VAR found he was offside
Then, on the half hour mark, Morata had the ball beyond Neto but the linesman’s flag was up once more, with the Spaniard straying offside when Cuadrado delivered a teasing ball into the box.
Cuadrado turned provided once more in the second half as the Colombian hooked the ball back across the face of goal and Morata hammered home.
The Spaniard turned to the linesman, expecting the flag to be raised. But when the official determined that Morata had been in an onside position, the striker was visibly relieved that he had finally drawn his side level.
It was a frustrating night for the Spaniard, as Juventus fell to a 1-0 defeat to Barcelona
However, VAR intervened and found that, yet again, Morata had strayed offside when Cuadrado played the ball in, meaning his goal was chalked off for a third time.
Barcelona’s win comes as a huge boost for Koeman’s side, who have endured a mixed start to the 2020-21 campaign. Wednesday night’s triumph puts Messi & Co at the summit of Group G, ahead of Juve, Dynamo Kiev and Ferencvaros TM.
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