A controversial hair pull, which the referee did not see, led to a furious discussion on the sideline, which provoked a red card for Chelsea coach Bompastor and a postgame revelation on her phone.
Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor pulled out her cell phone in a post-match interview and played footage of a hair pull that match officials missed in the women's Champions League game against Arsenal.
The clip that Bompastor showed on a television interview featured Arsenal defender Katie McCabe pulling back the loose hair of Chelsea forward Alyssa Thompson as the United States international was launching an attack in the final seconds, looking for a goal that would have sent Wednesday's game to extra time.
The French coach, who considered that McCabe should have been sent off, protested from the sideline to Danish referee Frida Klarlund and received a red card. Bompastor continued to vent her anger afterward.
"I brought the phone with me — I don't know if you can see that. It's probably not usual. But if you look at this video, and I don't know if you can see it, for me it is clearly a red card for the Arsenal player. She is pulling Alyssa's hair. So I think, for me, if VAR again is not able to check that situation, I don't know why we have VAR," Bompastor said.
Bompastor said Thompson "was crying" after the incident, which occurred shortly after Chelsea scored in the fourth minute of added time to make it 1-0. That's how the game ended, and Arsenal advanced 3-2 on aggregate.
McCabe turned to social media after the game and posted on Instagram Stories: "I just want to clarify that I was genuinely trying to grab the shirt, I would never want to pull someone's hair. All my respect to Thompson."
Hair-pulling can be considered violent conduct and punished with a red card, as happened last year at the women's European Championship when the video assistant referee spotted German midfielder Kathrin Hendrich pulling the ponytail of France captain Griedge Mbock during a free kick.
In men's football, Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Joao Neves was sent off for pulling Marc Cucurella's hair near the end of Chelsea's 3-0 win in the Club World Cup final last year.
In the Premier League, Everton defender Michael Keane was sent off in January after a video review for pulling the hair of Wolverhampton player Tolu Arokodare as they challenged for an aerial ball. Everton failed in an appeal to the Football Association, arguing it did not constitute violent conduct.
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