Sonia Bompastor fumed at the level of officiating in Chelsea’s Women’s Champions League clash with Arsenal, though she also conceded her team should have been better in attack.

Chelsea beat the Gunners 1-0 at Stamford Bridge thanks to Sjoeke Nusken’s goal in second-half stoppage time.

However, it was too little too late as the Blues succumbed to a 3-2 aggregate defeat, with holders Arsenal progressing to the semi-finals for the ninth time. Only Lyon (13 as it stands) have made the last four of the competition on more occasions than the Gunners.

But Bompastor was left seething after an apparent hair pull from Katie McCabe on Alyssa Thompson was not spotted by the referee, with the VAR failing to intervene.

Bompastor was sent off for her complaints, and she blasted the officials in her post-match media duties.

She told BBC Sport: “For me, it is clearly a red card for the Arsenal player. She’s pulling Alyssa Thompson’s hair. If the VAR is not able to check that situation, I don’t know why we have the VAR.

“She doesn’t get a red card – it is clearly a red card – and, yeah, I go on my emotions. I shouldn’t but, at the end, I’m the one with the red card.

“If you look at all the decisions in the first leg and second leg, that’s part of the result at the end. That’s really disappointing.

“I don’t want to speak to [the officials] because it’s always the same story.

“Even if I go and speak to them, they will not give me a clear answer. It’s difficult for me because I don’t want to be the only one talking about this situation.

“But everyone needs to understand that’s the difference between being qualified and not being qualified. It has a big impact on players.

“I’m really proud of my players, I think they gave everything and they don’t deserve that level of refereeing again.”

Chelsea had 16 shots, hitting the post twice and creating chances worth 2.52 expected goals.

TIPPING SHOTS OVER THE BAR

Tonight’s @UWCL Player of the Match is Daphne van Domselaar pic.twitter.com/kylh0LHixR

— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 1, 2026

And Bompastor lamented a lack of cutting edge.

“The disappointment is huge. We wanted to come into this game and give our all,” she said.

“In terms of performance, we did what we had to do, we created a lot of opportunities but we didn’t score. That is the reality. That is why we are not qualified for the semi-finals.

“If you analyse both games, I think we need to understand the reality that we have not been clinical.

“At this stage of the competition, you have to be clinical when you create the chances. We hit the post again tonight and created enough to win.”

Though Arsenal boss Renee Slegers saw an 11-game winning run snapped, she could not have been happier with her team’s resilient display.

“Very happy. It was a very hard scenario going into this game with a 2-0 lead. The three games before this game had been very tight with small margins,” she said.

“We were preparing for this again. So proud of the players, mostly from a mentality perspective – how they managed this game. Really proud of the mentality again.