Chelsea: Sonia Bompastor fumes at Arsenal red card decision in bizarre TV outburst | OneFootball

Blues’ torrid Champions League record continued against London rivals

Sonia Bompastor insists Katie McCabe should have been sent off for pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair and leaving the Chelsea forward in tears as they were dumped out of the Champions League.

Bompastor renewed calls for UEFA to up their standard of refereeing, declaring that McCabe should have seen red.

“In the moment, I was emotional,” the Chelsea boss told reporters.

“It is clear for everyone and I think everyone could see the video. One of my players had her hair pulled and I can probably understand the refereee can’t see that, but I can’t understand why the VAR is not checking that situation.

“Why are they not going back to that, checking, and having a clear call? The impact on my player, Thompson, she was emotional. When you are playing football and someone pulls your hair, it is not good enough.

“In the end, I am the one who got the red card, when the Arsenal player should be the one who gets the red card.

“I think the intention is clear. For me, she tried to pull the hair.”

Seeing red: Sonia Bompastor

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It is not the first time Bompastor has fallen foul of the officials in this tie.

She also laid into VAR after the first leg, when Veerle Buurman had what appeared to be a fair goal ruled out for a soft foul on Lotte Wubben-Moy.

“What is the VAR doing in these games?” she continued. “Why are they not checking these things? It is not good enough.

“We lost the first leg and did not score enough today. That is why we are not qualified, but today we are talking too much about the referees.

“I am just questioning why are these referees coming into these games, after what happened in the first leg, refereeing these games?

Bompastor reeled off a list of Nielsen’s previous high-profile refereeing errors, which included awarding a penalty to Real Madrid for a foul outside the box and a Chelsea goal from her debut season wrongly disallowed for offside.

It was pointed out to the Blues’ boss that UEFA had backed the quality of their referees after the first leg.

She added in response: “This is not good enough. They shouldn't be happy. It should be clear for everyone.

“I cannot see how they cannot make changes. All we can do is talk about it, but I do not think it will change something.”