Chelsea have condemned racist abuse after the club's UEFA Youth League game against Qarabag in Baku was suspended amid allegations of racism aimed towards the Blues' Under-19s side.

Players of Chelsea's academy were visibly upset after an altercation from members of the crowd, and the referee then stopped the game in Azerbaijan’s capital city.

The young Blues were leading 1-0 courtesy of Sol Gordon at the time of the stoppage. Gordon and his teammates celebrated near a small number of Qarabag ultras when the altercation happened. Eyewitnesses in attendance at the game claim to have seen and heard monkey gestures and noises.

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Chelsea said in a statement: "We are aware of an incident during today’s UEFA Youth League match in Azerbaijan in which, after scoring, a number of our players were subjected to racist abuse from an individual in the crowd.

"Racism and all forms of discriminatory behaviour are completely unacceptable and have no place in football or indeed in society. We strongly condemn the actions of the individual responsible.

"Our players have the full support of everyone at the club, and we have raised the incident immediately with the UEFA match delegate and home club: We expect this matter to be investigated fully under UEFA’s disciplinary procedures.

"We are proud of the way our players and staff responded to the incident on the pitch, swiftly reporting it to the referee, and commend those for dealing with the matter professionally and appropriately in line with UEFA protocols.

"Chelsea Football Club is immensely proud of the diversity within our team and across our entire club and will continue to work with UEFA to ensure that those responsible for discriminatory behaviour in football are held accountable."

Qarabag released their own statement and said: “We are sorry about this incident. It does not represent the values of our club and we will investigate thoroughly.”

After a brief stoppage, play resumed and Chelsea won comfortably 5-0 thanks to a double from Jesse Derry and one goal each from Shim Mheuka and Frankie Runham.