The battle of Stamford Bridge was already getting spicy and bubbling when Sjoeke Nusken finally grabbed the goal Chelsea had been pushing for all night. Then, as Arsenal held on to what was now only a one-goal advantage, Katie McCabe set it alight by pulling the hair of Alyssa Thompson as the winger surged away on the counter-attack in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Sonia Bompastor and the Chelsea bench leapt to their feet, the French coach exploding at the fourth official on the touchline when the Danish referee, Frida Klarlund, waved play on and the VAR apparently fell asleep.

If Chelsea were to exit the Champions League, again, they would do so while torching the place down. Bompastor was booked twice in two minutes for her furious protests, a dramatic sending off encapsulating her anger at the officiating throughout this quarter-final. Bompastor raged last week when Chelsea had controversially seen a goal ruled out in their 3-1 first-leg defeat at the Emirates. The officiating, she said, showed a lack of respect for the women’s game, and those claims were repeated loud and clear to Uefa here.

It wasn’t why Chelsea did not overturn Arsenal’s advantage in the second leg – numerous wasted chances in the first half, plus an outstanding display from goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar, saw to that as well – but McCabe’s hair-pull going unpunished was the final straw for Bompastor and how the night would be remembered by.

During a post-game TV interview, Bompastor pulled up a video of the incident on her phone and held it to the camera. “Why do we have VAR?” she demanded.

McCabe protested her innocence, posting an immediate statement on Instagram to say she “wouldn’t ever want to pull someone’s hair”; the Republic of Ireland international said she attempted to grab Thompson’s shirt when the Chelsea forward burst away on the counter-attack. Arsenal head coach Renee Slegers also insisted it was not deliberate. But Thompson, whose hair had been pulled, was left in tears, Bompastor said.

“I think the intention is clear,” Bompastor added, before the former Lyon coach reeled off a series of four or five incidents that had gone against just Chelsea, or against her, or both, in the Champions League.

They included Catarina Macario’s disallowed goal against Barcelona this season, to before Bompastor’s time at the club and a contentious disallowed goal and penalty decision in a 2-2 draw against Real Madrid in November 2023. Bompastor came prepared and with her research: referee Klarlund was in charge of that, too, she pointed out. Bompastor also brought up her Lyon side’s defeat to Chelsea in the quarter-finals three years ago, when Lauren James went down in penalty box under a soft challenge in the last minute of stoppage time and Chelsea went on to knock Lyon out on penalties.

Right to the end, this was wonderful chaos; and a result to bolster Arsenal’s belief that this could be their year again. Sleger’s side may have lost their run of 11 consecutive in all competitions but they emerged from this bruising affair with their title defence intact after a resilient defensive effort. They will either face Lyon, in a possible rematch of last season’s semi-finals, or Wolfsburg for a chance at returning to the final they won last year against Barcelona in Lisbon.

“Champions of Europe” was the cry from the away end at Stamford Bridge and it is no secret that Arsenal almost ghosted in last season to capture the one trophy Chelsea want to win above all others. Chelsea had suffered three consecutive semi-final exits to Barcelona in this competition but a quarter-final exit to their London rivals will hurt more. Chelsea will also be relinquishing their Women’s Super League crown after six straight titles to Manchester City in the next few weeks.

They appeared a sad imitation of last season’s team, which confidently overturned a 2-0 first-leg defeat to swat Manchester City aside at Stamford Bridge in last year’s Champions League quarter-finals. The reality of a transitional year, which perhaps was always to be expected following the departure of Emma Hayes, and which may have been somewhat covered up by last season’s unbeaten domestic treble, is now painfully clear. “The reality is the season is not where we want it to be,” Bompastor admitted.

Chelsea had enough chances to have cancelled out Arsenal’s lead. “The story of our season, we missed the clinical element,” Bompastor accepted. In the first half, Nusken and Thompson turned wide as Ellie Carpenter caused a threat down the right and James pulled the strings in midfield. When Chelsea spurned those opportunities, James started to drop deeper and deeper, the frustration rising as Chelsea became even more disconnected. Sam Kerr was denied a vintage strike by Van Domselaar, who brilliantly tipped over her shot from the edge of the box after she had been released with a long pass over the top.

Bompastor turned and began to laugh when Van Domselaar later tipped Nusken’s header onto the post, the second time Chelsea had struck the frame of the goal in their late siege. It was evidently not going to be their night, but Nusken gave Chelsea some hope when the German finally finished one of their chances by slamming in Kerr’s cut-back in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Then came McCabe’s hair-pull, and the most explosive of exits.

It has been almost three years since Errol Spence Jr stepped through the ropes, but a summer return against Australia’s Tim Tszyu seems to be gathering pace.

Spence was handed the first defeat of his career back in 2023 by Terence Crawford, who became the undisputed welterweight world champion that night. Despite many feeling that it was a pick ’em fight beforehand, Crawford won handily, dropping Spence three times before scoring a TKO in the ninth.

After a lengthy lay-off and persistent rumours of a return, Spence reportedly has ‘a done deal’ with Tszyu provided the Aussie comes through Denis Nurja this weekend in Wollongong.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Crawford praised Tszyu’s campaign so far.

“Tim Tszyu [has] had a great career, it’s still going. He’s accomplished a lot for what his experience entails. His fight this weekend – I don’t know too much about the opponent other than he’s undefeated. Will he be back on top and become a champion again? I can’t say he won’t, I can’t say he will. We just got to wait and see.”

However, the recently retired five-division world champion backs his former foe to win should all go to plan and the fight take place.

“I think Spence beats him. At this point in both of their careers, I think he beats him.”

Fans will hope to see a reinvigorated Spence, particularly since he will be returning at 154lbs after cutting to the welterweight limit of 147 for so long. However, questions remain over what he has left in the tank following various injuries – not least a serious car accident.

Arsenal captain Kim Little says she believes her side are “getting better and better” as they reach the semi-finals of the Women’s Champions League, after beating Chelsea 3-2 on aggregate to close in on successfully defending their title.

READ MORE: Arsenal hold off Chelsea to reach Champions League last four

Former NHL player J.T. Brown’s wife Lexi LaFleur is calling for immediate action after a video surfaced online showing a group of Dallas Stars fans performing Nazi salutes during a game.

The incident reportedly happened on Dec. 21, 2025, when the Stars faced the Toronto Maple Leafs at American Airlines Center in Dallas, ultimately winning 5-1. According to a Reddit post that has since gone viral, a fan who attended the game recorded a group of young men sitting in front of them doing a Nazi salute “every time the stars scored.”

“I was at the Stars game on December 21 and these boys were sitting in front of us doing a Nazi salute every time the stars scored,” the original poster wrote. “I’ve been to several games and never seen anything like this before. I recorded them and sent it to arena management, but they said they couldn’t find the boys despite me giving them their exact seat numbers.”

LaFleur Brown quote-tweeted the post reshared on X with a strong message:

“Lifetime ban from all NHL arenas immediately. It’s literally in the NHL Fan Code of Conduct. If you ever see behavior like this at a game, alert staff. Unacceptable.”

In her follow-up comments, she attached a link to the NHL Fan Code of Conduct which explicitly prohibits such behavior.

Lexi LaFleur looks back on her days of playing on the boys’ team as a child

Lexi LaFleur herself has played junior hockey throughout school. Last week, LaFleur posted a photo from her elementary school yearbook on X revealing a childhood dream that has taken on new meaning in light of recent success of the PWHL.

“Crying over my elementary school yearbook in which I wrote ‘when I grow up I want to play in the NHL’ because now little girls get to dream of playing in the PWHL,” she wrote.

But her path to hockey wasn’t without obstacles. In a viral TikTok video that has garnered over 1 million views, LaFleur Brown shared her first experience with toxic masculinity in hockey at just 10 years old when several boys on her youth peewee hockey team voted to have her removed with the help of a parent.

“It lit a fire under my ass that has fueled me for the rest of my life,” Brown said in the video. “My love for hockey is bigger and greater than anybody’s ability to hate me.” [H/T Glamour magazine]

Following the recent controversy involving President Donald Trump’s phone call to the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team, she has been among those calling for greater respect for women in sports.

“It’s sad that fans are new to this and that was kind of their first hockey heartbreak,” LaFleur Brown said in response to the controversy. “I have seen people say, ‘That’s it, I’m just gonna support the PWHL.’ I think that’s great too. There are other ways to love hockey than to just support the NHL.”

The incident occurred when Trump called the men’s gold medal-winning team and joked that he would “have to” invite the women’s team to the State of the Union or risk being impeached. The comment drew rancorous laughter from players in the locker room.