{"id":46723,"date":"2026-04-02T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=46723"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T03:41:00","slug":"heres-how-chelsea-and-arsenal-managers-reacted-as-katie-mccabe-avoided-red-for-hair-pull-on-alyssa-thompson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/heres-how-chelsea-and-arsenal-managers-reacted-as-katie-mccabe-avoided-red-for-hair-pull-on-alyssa-thompson\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s how Chelsea and Arsenal managers reacted as Katie McCabe avoided red for hair pull on Alyssa Thompson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor<\/strong> unleashed a furious rant at the refereeing standards after Arsenal defender Katie McCabe avoided a red card for pulling Chelsea winger Alyssa Thompson\u2019s hair<\/strong> in a dramatic Women\u2019s Champions League quarter-final exit.<\/p>\n

The incident happened in the fifth minute of stoppage time at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea had just scored through Sjoeke Nusken to make it 3-2<\/strong> on aggregate and were pushing desperately for a leveller that would have taken the tie to extra time. As Thompson burst forward with the ball, McCabe reached out and tugged the American\u2019s ponytail, bringing her to the ground. Referee Frida Mia Klarlund blew for a free-kick but issued no card, while VAR did not recommend a review.<\/p>\n

Bompastor, visibly angry, was shown a yellow card for protesting<\/strong> and then sent off for a second booking. The French coach refused to leave the touchline and later used her mobile phone to show replay footage during a heated BBC \u00a0interview.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it is clearly a red card for the Arsenal player. She\u2019s pulling Alyssa Thompson\u2019s hair,\u201d Bompastor said. \u201cIf the VAR is not able to check that situation, I don\u2019t know why we have the VAR. I\u2019m the one getting a red card when I think the Arsenal player should be the one getting a red card.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added that Thompson was left \u201ccrying and emotional\u201d afterwards. \u201cShe\u2019s trying her best on the pitch in both games and it is not good enough when you are playing football and someone pulls your hair, it\u2019s bad,\u201d Bompastor said.<\/p>\n

The Chelsea manager also referenced similar complaints from the first leg at the Emirates Stadium, where her team had two goals disallowed. \u201cTonight we are speaking too much about the referees and that was the case last week. But everyone needs to understand that\u2019s the difference between being qualified and not being qualified. It has a big impact on players. I\u2019m really proud of my players they gave everything and they do not deserve that level of refereeing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal manager Renee Slegers<\/strong> offered a calmer view and defended her player. \u201cI didn\u2019t see the incident on the pitch when it was happening but I did see Katie going to Alyssa to apologise. My assumption is it\u2019s not intentional but it is of course unlucky,<\/strong>\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Katie McCabe herself addressed the controversy on Instagram shortly after the match: \u201cI just want to clarify that I was genuinely reaching for the shirt. I wouldn\u2019t ever want to pull someone\u2019s hair. Full respect to Thompson.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former England captain Steph Houghton was more critical, saying: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look great, does it? Chelsea had just scored, Thompson was driving with the ball. It is really, really cynical and it doesn\u2019t look great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arsenal held on to secure a 3-2 aggregate victory and advance to the semi-finals<\/strong>, but the hair-pull incident and the managers\u2019 contrasting reactions dominated the headlines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor unleashed a furious rant at the refereeing standards after Arsenal defender Katie McCabe avoided a red\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":46727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1947,2068,2031,3930,5082,4057,5083],"class_list":["post-46723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal-women","tag-chelsea-women","tag-manager","tag-red-card","tag-sonia-bompastor","tag-top-stories","tag-yellow-card"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46723"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46726,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46723\/revisions\/46726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}