In the second leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals, Chelsea Women secured a 1–0 home victory over Arsenal Women, but were eliminated with a 2–3 aggregate defeat.

A controversial moment occurred during the match, as Arsenal’s McCabe appeared to pull an opponent’s hair, yet the referee took no action and VAR did not intervene. Instead, Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor was sent off for protesting.

In the closing stages, McCabe’s hair-pulling incident involving Thompson went unpunished. Bompastor, visibly frustrated, stepped forward to protest and was shown her first yellow card. VAR was expected to review the incident but ultimately did not. Less than a minute later, Bompastor stepped onto the pitch in an attempt to speed up the restart and received a second yellow card, resulting in a red card dismissal.

After the match, Bompastor said:

“I was very emotional at the time because, from everyone’s perspective, it was obvious. I can perhaps understand that the referee might miss it, but I cannot understand why VAR didn’t review the incident. And it’s not the first time—why don’t they go back and take another look, and make a clear decision? This had a serious impact on my player; she was completely distraught.”

“The outcome is that I get sent off, while the Arsenal player who should have been dismissed faces no consequences. What is VAR doing in these matches? If VAR is there, why not review incidents like this? I simply cannot understand—it’s completely unacceptable.”

After the match, McCabe responded on social media, stating that the incident was unintentional:

“I want to clarify that I was actually trying to grab the shirt—I never intended to pull anyone’s hair. I have full respect for Thompson.”

Former England international Ellen White also commented on the incident:

“I’m very shocked that VAR didn’t advise the referee to review it. The action looked very serious. We’ve seen similar hair-pulling incidents before, and they’ve all resulted in straight red cards, so it had to be reviewed.”

“We don’t know if it would have changed the outcome, but there was only about a minute left, and Thompson was making a fast run down the wing. Could she have delivered a cross to help Chelsea score? Could the match have gone into extra time? We’ll never know. If VAR had reviewed it and issued a red card to McCabe, Chelsea would have had a free kick and Arsenal would have been down to ten players. Anything could have happened next.”