Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor felt her players ‘deserved more respect’ after the Blues hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals were dashed by a 3-2 aggregate loss to Arsenal.
Sjoeke Nusken scored in stoppage time at Stamford Bridge to encourage the hosts to a 1-0 second-leg quarter-final victory which was overshadowed by a late incident that appeared to point out Arsenal defender Katie McCabe pulling the ponytail of Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson, who was left in tears.
McCabe later claimed on Instagram that she was ‘genuinely’ reaching for Thompson’s shirt, offering her opponent ‘full respect’, but Bompastor felt the episode deserved a review by the match officials.
‘I just think it’s not adequate,’ said Bompastor, who was visibly outraged on the touchline.
‘At the tip I’m the one who gets a red card where I believe the Arsenal player must be the one who gets a red card.
‘What’s the VAR doing in these games? If we’ve the VAR, why are we not checking these situations? I don’t understand, and it’s not adequate.’
Bompastor was still raging by the point she gave her TV interview with the BBC, arriving armed with a cell phone in hand and a clip of the moment McCabe pulled Thompson’s hair asking: ‘Why do we’ve VAR?’.
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She added: ‘I don’t need to speak to them [the officials] since it’s at all times the identical story.
‘Even when I’m going and speak to them, they are going to not give me a transparent answer. It’s difficult for me because I don’t need to be the just one talking about this example.
‘Everyone needs to grasp that’s the difference between being qualified and never being qualified. It has a huge impact on players.’
Chelsea, meanwhile, look unlikely to catch Manchester City within the WSL title chase but remain alive within the FA Cup, and can tackle Tottenham in Monday’s quarter-final.
‘The fact is, for a club like Chelsea, (our season) is just not adequate,’ admitted Bompastor. ‘I’m not blissful concerning the proven fact that I can’t help the team greater than we did this season.’
Arsenal’s Champions League title defence continues with a semi-final matchup against either Lyon or Wolfsburg, who enter Friday’s decider locked in a goalless aggregate stalemate.
Boss Renee Slegers, who didn’t feel the hair pull was deliberate, said: ‘It was an unbelievable performance from the team, since it is a tough scenario.
‘I believe it’s special to be a component of this. I actually enjoy being with these people each day and the method that we’re in and the outcomes that we’re getting.
‘I believe everyone feels this fashion about what we’re doing for the time being. We will never get comfortable on this, despite the fact that we’ve to enjoy where we’re at, but we’ve to maintain on striving for more and higher.’
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