At A Glance:
- Arsenal Women secured themselves a spot in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday.
- Katie McCabe pulled the hair of Alyssa Thompson – and has released a statement.
- Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor has fumed about the decision.
Arsenal Women booked themselves a spot in the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night despite losing 1-0 to Chelsea Women – and Katie McCabe has apologised for pulling the hair of Alyssa Thompson.
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s Sjoeke Nusken scored the solitary goal in Arsenal’s narrow defeat to their Women’s Super League rivals.
But their earlier tie – a 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday 24 March – has secured the Gunners passage into the next round. Reigning champions Arsenal emerged triumphant on aggregate.
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In what was a rather drab match in terms of the talent on offer, McCabe was counting her lucky stars after escaping a red card for an obvious pull on Thompson’s hair.
Katie McCabe claims hair pull on Alyssa Thompson was unintentional
McCabe, the captain of Ireland’s women’s team, didn’t even receive a yellow card for her offence and those on VAR didn’t tell referee Frida Mia Klarlund to send her off.
Sonia Bompastor, Chelsea Women’s head coach, was furious on the sidelines that McCabe was allowed to continue playing.
The hair-pulling incident took place late on in the second leg of Arsenal’s all-London Champions League encounter with Chelsea as Thompson broke down her side’s left flank.
She managed to initially escape the grasp of McCabe, who was keen to not allow Thompson go free on the left. You can watch the incident below:
In a desperate attempt to the thwart the American, footage shows McCabe pulling her opponent’s hair. Amid criticism, the 30-year-old took to Instagram to cool tensions.
“I just want to clarify that I was genuinely reaching for the shirt, I wouldn’t ever want to pull someone’s hair,” she wrote before adding, “Full respect to [Alyssa] Thompson.”
The typical result in a player pulling the hair of an opposing player is a red card – as evidenced by Joao Neves’ early shower against Chelsea in the Club World Cup final in the summer.
Bompastor fumes at referee decision not to send McCabe off
Because McCabe wasn’t sent off, Bompastor became full of anger on the side of the pitch. Such a reaction earned Bompastor a caution and she was eventually sent off for further protests.
In the wake of the match, which saw her side dumped out of Europe’s top table, she didn’t hold back in her assessment of the incident:
“I brought the phone with me, I don’t know if you can see that. But if you look at the video, for me it’s clearly the red card for the Arsenal player. She’s pulling Alyssa’s hair.
“So I think for me, if the VAR again is not able to check that situation, I don’t know why we have the VAR,” the Chelsea Women boss added, per The Sun.
Still frustrated, she continued: “In the moment, I was emotional because I think it’s clear for everyone.
“I can probably understand the referees sometimes can’t see that, but I don’t understand – and it’s not been the first time now – why the VAR is not checking that situation?
“Why are they not going back to that, checking and having a clear call on that? Because the impact on my player she was emotional. At the end, I’m the one who gets a red card, where I think the Arsenal player should be the one who gets a red card.”
