Sonia Bompastor explodes at Katie McCabe’s hair-pull — then pulls out the receipts
The Chelsea manager was furious McCabe was not sent off for pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair as Arsenal held on to reach the Women’s Champions League semi-finals
The battle of Stamford Bridge was already getting spicy and bubbling when Sjoeke Nusken finally grabbed the goal Chelsea had been pushing for all night. Then, as Arsenal held on to what was now only a one-goal advantage, Katie McCabe set it alight by pulling the hair of Alyssa Thompson as the winger surged away on the counter-attack in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Sonia Bompastor and the Chelsea bench leapt to their feet, the French coach exploding at the fourth official on the touchline when the Danish referee, Frida Klarlund, waved play on and the VAR apparently fell asleep.
If Chelsea were to exit the Champions League, again, they would do so while torching the place down. Bompastor was booked twice in two minutes for her furious protests, a dramatic sending off encapsulating her anger at the officiating throughout this quarter-final. Bompastor raged last week when Chelsea had controversially seen a goal ruled out in their 3-1 first-leg defeat at the Emirates.
The officiating, she said, showed a lack of respect for the women’s game , and those claims were repeated loud and clear to Uefa here. Chelsea' manager Sonia Bompastor walks away whilst being shown a red card in stoppage time (AFP via Getty Images) It wasn’t why Chelsea did not overturn Arsenal’s advantage in the second leg - numerous wasted chances in the first half, plus an outstanding display from goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, saw to that as well - but McCabe’s hair-pull going unpunished was the final straw for Bompastor and how the night would be remembered by. During a post-game TV interview, Bompastor pulled up an image of the hair-pull on her phone and held it to the camera.
“Why do we have VAR? ” she demanded. McCabe protested her innocence, posting an immediate statement on Instagram to say she “wouldn’t ever want to pull someone’s hair”; the Republic of Ireland international said she attempted to grab Thompson’s shirt when the Chelsea forward burst away on the counter-attack.
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