The highlight of Wednesday's soccer matchup between Chelsea and Swansea wasn't an amazing goal or spectacular play, but a case of frustration and poor sportsmanship.
Chelsea star Eden Hazard was ejected Wednesday for kicking at a ball boy who didn't return the ball to him quickly enough in the final minutes of a semifinal game in the English League Cup.
The ball bounced off an advertising board behind the goal line late in a scoreless match and a 17-year-old ball boy picked the ball up, but when Hazard tried to take the ball to continue the game, the ball boy went down to the ground and smothered the ball.
Hazard, 22, tried to pry the ball from the boy but was unsuccessful. In an act of frustration to continue the game, Hazard tried to kick the ball loose from the boy but instead mad contact with the teen, who was left with a grimacing look while holding his mid-section.
The incident sparked a flurry of activity on social networking sites and induced imaginative headlines in British newspapers.
Several Chelsea players were seen tending to the ball boy and helping him to his feet after the incident. The ball boy left the game.
Hazard was sent off by the referee, South Wales Police briefly contemplated pressing charges and Chelsea -- not for the first time this season -- were facing a public relations disaster of their own making.
"The boy put his whole body onto the ball and I was just trying to kick the ball and I think I kicked the ball and not the boy," Hazard said after the incident, although he still apologized.
The match finished in a scoreless tie, but because Swansea scored two goals in their two previous meetings, it advanced to the next round.
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