Moment Arsenal star Leah Williamson concedes bizarre penalty after handling the ball in the area as Gunners throw away two-goal lead against Paris FC
Leah Williamson gave away a bizarre penalty as Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead to draw with Paris FC in the Women’s Champions League.
Renee Slegers’ side have struggled to find the back of the net this season, but Alessia Russo ended her goalscoring drought with a clinical finish in the 41st minute.
Georgia Stanway then joined her Lioness team-mate in getting her first goal of the campaign in the 50th minute, her first since signing for the north London club from Bayern Munich in the summer.
But Paris FC bided their time, scoring a wonderful goal on the counter 20 minutes later before a miscommunication between Williamson and Arsenal goalkeeper Misa Rodriguez led to a penalty in the 87th minute.
It appeared Williamson thought Rodriguez had thrown her the ball, and she handled it to place it on the edge of the six-yard box to take the goal kick herself.
The problem was that Rodriguez had in fact kicked the ball to Williamson and, with play considered live, the referee judged it to be handball and pointed to the penalty spot.
Arsenal vice-captain Leah Williamson gave away a bizarre penalty as Arsenal threw away a two-goal lead to draw with Paris FC in the Women’s Champions League
According to IFAB’s Laws of the Game, a goal kick is in play once the ball is stationary and ‘is kicked from any point within the goal area by a player of the defending team’. Replays showed the ball had come to a stop after Rodriguez threw it onto the pitch before kicking it to Williamson, meaning the referee’s decision was correct.
Williamson looked visibly devastated by the incident as Maeline Mendy stepped up to convert the equaliser.
After the match, Slegers came under scrutiny for choosing to skip the post-match press conference, instead sending assistant coach Aaron D’Antino to meet the media.
D’Antino said: ‘We didn’t think it was a penalty, we don’t think the goal kick had actually been taken for what we had seen. But it goes to VAR and apparently that’s a penalty.
‘It’s just passing the ball to Leah from what I remember seeing, the ball was still rolling and she was moving it to Leah for her to take the goal kicks as we normally do.’
Slegers is under pressure heading into this weekend’s match against champions Manchester City, with Arsenal having won just one of their opening four WSL games and only managing a narrow 1-0 win in their Champions League opener against HB Koge last week.
After making statement signings in the summer, including star midfielder Stanway and World Cup winner Ona Batlle, Arsenal were widely expected to challenge for the title this season.
They are now seven points behind league leaders City, and defeat at the weekend could effectively end their title hopes before the race has properly begun.
