04/02/26 11:22:00
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04/02 05:24 CDT Chelsea coach laments lack of VAR on hair-pulling incident in
Women's Champions League
Chelsea coach laments lack of VAR on hair-pulling incident in Women's Champions
League
By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer
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 Women's Champions League 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.
"I brought the phone with me --- I don't know if you can see that. That's
probably not usual," said Bompastor, who held up the screen and pressed play to
show the incident. "But if you look at this video, and I don't know if you can
see, for me it is clearly a 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."
Bompastor said Thompson "was crying" after the incident, which happened soon
after Chelsea scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time to make it 1-0.
That's how it stayed and Arsenal advanced 3-2 on aggregate.
McCabe took to social media after the game, posting on Instagram Stories: "I
just want to clarify that I was genuinely reaching for the shirt, I wouldn't
ever want to pull someone's hair. Full respect to Thompson."
UEFA was still waiting on Thursday for the match delegate's 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 yanking the
ponytail of France captain Griedge Mbock at a free kick.
In men's soccer, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Joao Neves was sent off for
pulling down Marc Cucurella by his hair toward the end of Chelsea's 3-0 victory
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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