Sam Kerr knocked a pitch invader to the ground on Wednesday evening during Chelsea’s 0-0 draw with Juventus in the Women’s Champions League and was shown a yellow card for it afterwards.
As the game in the group stages was drawing to a close, the man ran onto the pitch holding a mobile phone, stopping play as he sought to take a selfie with Chelsea’s captain, Magda Eriksson.
Eriksson appeared to tell him to leave the pitch while the crowd booed his appearance on the field as it was holding up the game.
Those boos turned to cheers when Australia captain Kerr ran over to him, dropped her shoulder and barged him over.
The man was escorted from the pitch by stewards, while referee Sara Persson showed Kerr a yellow card for her actions.
When asked by CNN why Kerr had been given a yellow and could the card be appealed, a UEFA spokesperson said: “The player was booked for unsporting behavior and no appeal has been received at this stage.”
After the game, Chelsea manager Emma Hayes admitted more needs to be done to protect players.
“He could have waited until the end for a photograph if he really wanted one. But jokes aside, we do have to think about player safety,” Hayes said, as reported by ESPN.
“We’ve seen in the growth of the game there is this sense of the players being more in demand. It should serve as a reminder to us all in our stadiums and with our stewards, we’ve got to put player protection first.”
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Chelsea missed out on the opportunity to qualify for the knockout stages as it failed to score for the first time this season.
Chelsea, who impressively defeated Arsenal to win the FA Cup at Wembley on Sunday, remain top of Group A and is three points clear of second-place Wolfsburg.
