Bompastor slams VAR after Chelsea’s UWCL exit to Arsenal | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor has slammed VAR after her side were knocked out of the Women’s Champions League, with Arsenal escaping a red card in the match.

The Blues won 1-0 on the night at Stamford Bridge but it was not enough to overturn the deficit from the first leg. Chelsea were eliminated after a 3-2 aggregate defeat to their London rivals.

However, Bompastor was left furious after Katie McCabe escaped a late red card. With Chelsea chasing an equaliser in injury time, the Arsenal defender pulled the hair of Alyssa Thompson. A free-kick was awarded but no card was shown to McCabe.

“I’m more calm now, but you need to understand in the moment, yeah, I was emotional,” said Bompastor. “Because I think it’s clear for everyone and I think everyone could see the video. I had one of my players pulled by her hair.

“And I can probably understand the referee sometimes can’t see that. But I don’t understand and it’s not been the first time now. It was one week ago. Why the VAR is not checking that situation? Why are they not going back to that? Just checking and having a clear call on that.”

The Chelsea boss continued: “I just think it’s not good enough. And at the end again, I’m the one who gets a red card. Where I think the Arsenal player should be the one who gets a red card.

“What is the VAR doing in these games? If we have the VAR, why are we not checking these situations? I don’t understand. And it’s not good enough.

“I think you need to understand even if, again, we lost the game, the first leg, and we didn’t score enough today in the game. That’s why we are not qualified.

“But I think tonight we are speaking too much about the referees. And it was the case last week.”

Bompastor added: “I’m just questioning, why are these referees coming into this game with what happened in the first leg, refereeing these games? I don’t think that’s good enough. 

“I think I’m being really frustrated and upset. Not only for me, I think for my players.

“I think they deserve more respect. From the performance they put on the pitch, I think they deserve a lot more respect.”