Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor whipped out her cell phone in a post-match interview and replayed footage of a hair-pulling incident missed by match officials in the game against Arsenal.
The clip played by Bompastor in a TV interview showed Arsenal defender Katie McCabe pulling back the flowing hair of Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson as the U.S. international broke forward in the final seconds in search of a goal to take Wednesday’s game to extra time.
The French coach, who felt McCabe should have been sent off, complained to Danish referee Frida Klarlund from the sideline and was shown a red card. Bompastor continued to vent her anger afterward.
鈥淚 brought the phone with me 鈥� I don鈥檛 know if you can see that. That鈥檚 probably not usual,鈥� said Bompastor, who held up the screen and pressed play to show the incident. 鈥淏ut if you look at this video, and I don鈥檛 know if you can see, for me it is clearly a red card for the Arsenal player. She鈥檚 pulling Alyssa鈥檚 hair. So I think, for me, if the VAR again is not able to check that situation, I don鈥檛 know why we have the VAR.鈥�
Bompastor said Thompson 鈥渨as crying鈥� after the incident, which happened soon after Chelsea scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time to make it 1-0. That鈥檚 how it stayed and Arsenal advanced 3-2 on aggregate.
McCabe took to social media after the game, on Instagram Stories: 鈥淚 just want to clarify that I was genuinely reaching for the shirt, I wouldn鈥檛 ever want to pull someone鈥檚 hair. Full respect to Thompson.鈥�
UEFA was still waiting on Thursday for the match delegate鈥檚 report.
Hair-pulling can be regarded as violent conduct and punished with a red card, as was the case in the Women’s European Championship last year when the video assistant referee spotted Germany midfielder Kathrin Hendrich of France captain Griedge Mbock at a free kick.
In men’s soccer, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Jo茫o Neves was sent off for pulling down Marc Cucurella by his hair toward the end of in the Club World Cup final last year.
In the Premier League, Everton defender Michael Keane was sent off in January after a video review for pulling the hair of Wolverhampton’s Tolu Arokodare as they competed for a header. Everton failed with an appeal to the Football Association that it did not constitute violent conduct.
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