A total of 34 spot kicks were taken at Stamford Bridge, the longest in English football history, as Chelsea’s U-23 side prevailed against Oxford United. Chelsea won the shootout 13-12 after United’s Wes Thomas missed in the 17th round of kicks. The EFL game had finished 1-1.

In a bizarre turn of events, the Blues failed to qualify for the next round of the tournament after finishing at the bottom of the group, while Oxford went through on the virtue of being second.

Chelsea had some familiar names on the scoresheet such as Dutch midfielder Marco van Ginkel and defender Kurt Zouma, who has been a long-term injury absentee. The Frenchman scored twice in the shootout while Van Ginkel had one of his kicks saved. Full-back Ola Aina, who has regularly featured on the bench this season, also played a part.

The previous longest penalty shootout in England before this contest was in the EFL Trophy match between Derby County and Carlisle United, who shared 32 kicks between them. Scunthorpe and Worcester’s FA Cup match in 2014 also matched the feat.

The all-time record for the longest spot-kick contest was between SK Batov 1903 and FC Frystak, who played out 52 kicks with the former emerging winners by an astounding 22-21 margin.

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