Chelsea’s Ross Barkley has said his penalty miss in their disappointing 1-0 defeat to Valencia in Champions League opener would not see his last spot-kick.
Frank Lampard’s side fell behind to Rodrigo Moreno’s 74th-minute strike in the Champions League clash at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday, and the Blues boss sent Ross Barkley on as a substitute six minutes later.
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The England international had been on the field for just seven minutes when his side won a penalty and he stepped up despite Willian and Jorginho both appearing to stake their claims to take it.
On his way over, Barkley’s spot-kick speared the top of the crossbar and Chelsea started their European campaign with a defeat, but the midfielder told reporters: “If there was another penalty in the game, I would have been confident to take it.
“You can miss penalties. It’s not the end of the world.
“We’ve got five more group games to go that we’re aiming to win.”
While backing himself to convert penalties in the future, Barkley said his team-mates were not vying to take the kick before he stepped up.
“We’ve got a lot of good penalty takers in the squad,” said Barkley. “On a sheet in the changing room, it says I’m on penalties when I’m on the pitch, otherwise it’s Jorginho.
“All players feel confident of taking penalties, but we can all miss them. It’s more ‘good luck with the penalty’ type of thing, encouraging me. They would have been willing to take it as well, but I felt confident.
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“They were just encouraging me, encouraging me to score the goal. They are confident of taking penalties as well, but I take penalties every day.
“I don’t miss them in training and in pre-season I was scoring penalties. I’ve missed penalties before, when I was at Everton.
“I’m gutted I missed, but these things happen.”
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