{"id":1615,"date":"2026-04-02T08:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1615"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:13:08","slug":"chelsea-star-left-in-tears-after-hair-pulled-by-arsenal-rival-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=1615","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea star left in tears after hair pulled by Arsenal rival | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Chelsea\u2019s manager Sonia Bompastor produced a picture of the hair pull by an Arsenal player in a television interview\u00a0(Picture: BBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor<\/strong> felt her players \u2018deserved more respect\u2019 after the Blues hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals were dashed by a 3-2 aggregate loss to Arsenal.<\/p>\n

Sjoeke Nusken scored in stoppage time at Stamford Bridge to inspire the hosts to a 1-0 second-leg quarter-final victory which was overshadowed by a late incident that appeared to show Arsenal defender Katie McCabe pulling the ponytail of Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson, who was left in tears.<\/p>\n

McCabe later claimed on Instagram that she was \u2018genuinely\u2019 reaching for Thompson\u2019s shirt, offering her opponent \u2018full respect\u2019, but Bompastor<\/strong> felt the episode deserved a review by the match officials.<\/p>\n

\u2018I just think it\u2019s not good enough,\u2019 said Bompastor<\/strong>who was visibly outraged on the touchline. <\/p>\n

\u2018At the end I\u2019m the one who gets a red card where I think the Arsenal player should be the one who gets a red card.<\/p>\n

\u2018What is the VAR doing in these games? If we have the VAR, why are we not checking these situations? I don\u2019t understand, and it\u2019s not good enough.\u2019<\/p>\n

Bompastor was still raging by the time she gave her TV interview with the BBC, arriving armed with a mobile phone in hand and a clip of the moment McCabe pulled Thompson\u2019s hair asking: \u2018Why do we have VAR?\u2019.<\/p>\n

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She added: \u2018I don\u2019t want to speak to them (the officials) because it\u2019s always the same story. <\/p>\n

\u2018Even if I go and speak to them, they will not give me a clear answer. It\u2019s difficult for me because I don\u2019t want to be the only one talking about this situation. <\/p>\n

\u2018Everyone needs to understand that\u2019s the difference between being qualified and not being qualified. It has a big impact on players.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Sonia Bompastor reacts after being shown a yellow card by referee Frida Mia Klarlund (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chelsea, meanwhile, look unlikely to catch Manchester City in the WSL title chase but remain alive in the FA Cup, and will take on Tottenham in Monday\u2019s quarter-final.<\/p>\n

\u2018The reality is, for a club like Chelsea, (our season) is not good enough,\u2019 admitted Bompastor<\/strong>. \u2018I\u2019m not happy about the fact that I can\u2019t help the team more than we did this season.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arsenal\u2019s Champions League title defence continues with a semi-final matchup against either Lyon or Wolfsburg, who enter Friday\u2019s decider locked in a goalless aggregate stalemate.<\/p>\n

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Katie McCabe issued an apology on Instagram (Picture: Instagram)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Boss Renee Slegers, who did not feel the hair pull was deliberate, said: \u2018It was an unbelievable performance from the team, because it is a hard scenario.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think it\u2019s special to be a part of this. I really enjoy being with these people every single day and the process that we\u2019re in and the results that we\u2019re getting.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think everyone feels this way about what we\u2019re doing at the moment. We can never get comfortable in this, even though we have to enjoy where we are at, but we have to keep on striving for more and better.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Chelsea \u2018keeping close eye\u2019 on Barcelona star after joining Liverpool in transfer race<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City? Joe Cole reveals his pick to win the FA Cup<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: John Obi Mikel warns Chelsea that four star players could leave this summer<\/span><\/p>\n

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Chelsea\u2019s manager Sonia Bompastor produced a picture of the hair pull by an Arsenal player in a television interview\u00a0(Picture: BBC) Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor felt her players \u2018deserved more respect\u2019 after the Blues hopes of reaching the Champions League semi-finals were dashed by a 3-2 aggregate loss to Arsenal. Sjoeke Nusken scored in stoppage time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}