Renée Slegers says that she believes that Katie McCabe’s hair pull on Alyssa Thompson was not deliberate.
The incident went by without punishment for McCabe with VAR failing to check for a potential red card in the second leg of Arsenal’s UEFA Women’s Champions League tie against Chelsea. Arsenal lost 1-0 on the night but advanced on aggregate thanks to their 3-1 victory at the Emirates last week.
Slegers spoke to the media at Stamford Bridge following aggregate victory for her side and The Halfway Line was present to hear from her.
Renée Slegers lauds ‘unbelievable performance’ from Arsenal
For long periods of the match at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal were forced onto the back foot. However the team persisted and held out to book a semi final spot in the UWCL, Slegers reflected on an instant Champions League classic,
“It’s an unbelievable performance from the team,” Slegers said. “It’s a hard scenario, two goals up, and you go to Stamford bridge. And so far this season, we’ve played three games against Chelsea that have been very, very tight.
“It’s been about small margins, and then then showing this as a team to do things together like this, being so disciplined in our in our defending. The mentality that we show that we’re calm in the things we wanted to do, we bring them onto the pitch and just really proud and of course, very, very happy that we’re through to the semis.”
Tim Stillman of Arseblog news reminded Slegers of a phrase often used in her press conferences about needing ‘to suffer’,
“Just to clarify, suffer for something you love, so not just suffering for the suffering [but] because we’re passionate about it,” Slegers said with a smile. “Then if you want to achieve something that you’re passionate about, you have to be willing to suffer on the way.
“I think that’s what the team did really, really well today. They were prepared for it. They were prepared for a very difficult scenario, for momentum shifts, the first 15 minutes, potentially end of game, where things would change again.
“They just stayed in the game, in the controlled middle, as we call it. They were constantly in control whatever scenario or momentum. And they did their job together and also together with the fans, because they were an important factor for us tonight, being so loud and it was all red in that corner.”
Slegers says Katie McCabe hair pull was ‘not deliberate’
Sonia Bompastor had been adamant in her post match press conference that Katie McCabe should have been sent off and that she felt McCabe’s hair pull of Alyssa Thompson was intentional. That was put to Slegers,
“I haven’t spoken to Katie,” said Slegers. “I’ve seen the incident back. I don’t think it’s deliberate. I think she tries to pull the shirt of Alyssa.
“Alyssa Thompson is very fast, Katie is very competitive. She wants to win. You see that in the way she plays but for me, she always plays fair. She would never do anything deliberately bad with bad intentions.
“So, but I haven’t spoken to Katie yet, so, so I can’t comment on how she would comment on this situation.”
