The battle of Stamford Bridge was already bubbling when Sjoeke Nusken finally grabbed the goal Chelsea had been pushing for all night. Then, as Arsenal held on to what was now only a one-goal advantage, Katie McCabe set it alight by pulling the hair of Alyssa Thompson as the winger pulled away on the counter-attack in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Sonia Bompastor and the Chelsea bench leapt to their feet, the French coach exploding at the fourth official on the touchline when the Danish referee, Frida Klarlund, waved play on and VAR apperently fell asleep.
If Chelsea were to exit the Champions League, again, they would do so while torching the place down. Bompastor was booked twice in two minutes for her furious protests, a dramatic sending off encapsulating her anger at the officiating throughout this quarter-final.
Bompastor raged last week when Chelsea had controversially seen a goal ruled out in their 3-1 defeat at the Emirates. The officiating, she said, showed a lack of respect for the women’s game, and those claims were repeated loud and clear to Uefa here.
It wasn’t why Chelsea did not overturn Arsenal’s advantage in the second leg – numerous wasted chances in the first half, plus an outstanding display from goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, saw to that as well – but McCabe’s hair-pull going unpunished was the final straw for Bompastor and how the night would be remembered by.
During a post-game TV interview, Bompastor pulled up an image of the hair-pull on her phone and held it to the camera. “Why do we have VAR?” she demanded.
McCabe protested her innocence, posting an immediate statement on Instagram that she “wouldn’t ever want to pull someone’s hair”; the Republic of Ireland international said she attempted to pull Thompson’s shirt when the Chelsea forward burst away on the counter-attack. Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers also insisted it was not deliberate. But Thompson, whose hair had been pulled, was left in tears, Bompastor said.
“I think the intention is clear,” Bompastor added, before the former Lyon coach reeled off a series of four or five incidents that had gone against not just Chelsea, but against her, in the Champions League.
They included Catarina Macario’s disallowed goal against Barcelona this season, to before Bompastor’s time at the club and a contentious disallowed goal and penalty decision in a 2-2 draw against Real Madrid in November 2023. Bompastor came prepared and with her research: referee Klarlund was in charge of that, too, she pointed out. Bompastor also brought up her Lyon side’s defeat to Chelsea in the quarter-finals three years ago, when Lauren James went down in penalty box under a soft challenge in the last minute of stoppage time and Chelsea went on to knock Lyon out on penalties.
Right to the end, this was wonderful chaos; and a result to bolster Arsenal’s belief that this could be their year again. Sleger’s side may have lost their run of 11 consecutive in all competitions but they emerged from this bruising affair with their title defence intact after a resilient defensive effort. They will either face Lyon, in a possible rematch of last season’s semi-finals, of Wolfsburg for a chance at returning to the final they won last year against Barcelona in Lisbon.
“Champions of Europe” was the cry from the away end at Stamford Bridge and it is no secret that Arsenal almost ghosted in last season to capture the one trophy Chelsea want to win above all others. Chelsea had suffered three consecutive semi-final exits to Barcelona in this competition but a quarter-final exit to their London rivals will hurt more. Chelsea will be relinquishing their Women’s Super League crown after six straight titles to Manchester City in the next few weeks.
They appeared a sad imitation of last season’s team, which confidently overturned a 2-0 first-leg defeat to swat Manchester City aside at Stamford Bridge in last year’s Champions League quarter-finals. The reality of a transitional year, which perhaps was always to be expected following the departure of Emma Hayes, and which may have been somewhat covered up by last season’s unbeaten domestic treble, is now painfully clear. “The reality is the season is not where we want it to be,” Bompastor admitted.
Chelsea had enough chances to have cancelled out Arsenal’s lead. “The story of our season, we missed the clinical element,” Bompastor accepted. In the first half, Nusken and Thompson turned wide as Ellie Carpenter caused a threat down the right and Lauren James pulled the strings in midfield. When Chelsea spurned those opportunities, James started to drop deeper and deeper, the frustration rising as Chelsea became even more disconnected. Sam Kerr was denied a vintage strike by Van Domselaar, who brilliantly tipped over her shot from the edge of the box after she had been released with a long pass over the top.
Bompastor turned and began to laugh when Van Domselaar tipped Nusken’s header onto the post, the second time Chelsea had struck the frame of the goal. It was evidently not going to be their night, but Nusken gave Chelsea some hope when the German finally finished one of their chances by slamming in Kerr’s cutback in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Then came McCabe’s hair-pull, and the most explosive of exits.
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