Sonia Bompastor, the Chelsea head coach, said the women’s game needs to be shown “more respect” after the decision to rule out Veerle Buurman’s goal in the first half of the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final was not overturned by the video assistant referee.
Buurman leapt and nodded in and looked to have halved the hosts’ lead, but the referee, Alina Pesu, immediately ruled out the effort for a perceived foul on Laia Codina and the VAR did not deem it a clear and obvious error.
It was an incredibly soft decision, with Codina not jumping to challenge for the ball and Buurman’s hands on her shoulders as she rose to head in.
“It’s always more difficult to complain about the decisions when you’ve lost the game but to be honest, it’s not good enough,” said Bompastor.
“We really need to find solutions. In the quarter-final of the Champions League you need to respect the women’s game more, you need to respect the players more, because they work hard every week to put in a good performance on the pitch. For sure, the first goal is a goal. I don’t see with the VAR how you cannot allow that goal. That’s a shame, to be honest.”
