The Brazilian had wanted to take the spot-kick in Tuesday night’s defeat (Picture: Getty)

Willian has confirmed he tried to take the penalty off Ross Barkley in Tuesday’s defeat to Valencia but holds no ill will towards his teammate, saying Chelsea ‘lose together’.

The Blues suffered a 1-0 defeat at home to the Spanish side as they began their Champions League campaign in the worst possible fashion, with Barkley smashing a late penalty against the bar to deny the hosts a share of the spoils.

But there was some controversy before the penalty, with both Willian and Jorginho trying to take it instead of late substitute Barkley, who had come on a few minutes earlier.

Willian and Jorginho both tried to claim the penalty off Barkley (Picture: BT Sport)

Manager Frank Lampard confirmed afterwards that, although the duo were down to take penalties pre-match, Barkley became the designated taker as soon as he entered the field in the 80th minute.




Despite the former Everton midfielder missing his effort, Willian was sympathetic and felt either he or Jorginho could just as easily have suffered the same fate.

‘I wanted to take it but he was confident to take it,’ Willian told reporters after the match when asked about the discussions that took place before Barkley’s spot-kick miss.

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‘This is football. He missed the penalty but it could be me that missed, or Jorginho or whoever. So football is like this.

‘But when we win, we win together, and when we lose, we lose together.’

Barkley smashed his effort against the crossbar as Chelsea lost 1-0 (Picture: Getty)

Asked if there was any unrest among the players after the miss, Lampard told BT Sport: ‘Of course not. We’re here to win and the only disappointment – Ross as much as anyone – is that we didn’t score the penalty to then have five minutes to win the game.

‘It’s a great story if there’s contention between players but clearly there wasn’t. Ross took it and missed. If he scores nobody would ask that question but he doesn’t.

‘He took them in pre-season and scored. He just missed a penalty, a simple as that. You look at it going forward and you have designated penalty takers but Ross was that and he missed.’