Emma Hayes claims Kadeisha Buchanan’s sending off in Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final loss to Barcelona was “the worst decision in UEFA Women’s Champions League history”.
Buchanan was shown a second yellow card by referee Iuliana Demetrescu after 59 minutes at Stamford Bridge as she was penalised for a foul on Patri Guijarro. The Canada defender appeared to initially win the ball before catching the back of Guijarro’s knee with her trailing leg.
The tie was poised at 1-1 before Buchanan’s dismissal after Aitana Bonmati’s first-half strike had cancelled out Erin Cuthbert’s goal from the first leg. Barcelona went on the secure their place in the final thanks to a Fridolina Rolfo penalty 15 minutes from time as they progressed 2-1 on aggregate.
“When you lose football matches and you’ve been beaten by the better team, 11 vs 11,” Hayes said. “They’re the best team in the world for a reason, They had a strong first half, the deflected goal puts them in a good position but in the second half I felt we were just coming on top and you could see the combination of the crowd and the players were driving us, they felt really confident.
“So when you get such a shocking refereeing decision there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s hard enough when you’ve got 11 but when you’ve got 10 it’s virtually impossible.
“I didn’t think it was a foul, let alone a yellow card. When you lose a game, for us we didn’t feel we got the opportunity to lose it, that was taken away and I think that I was surprised when I saw her (Demetrescu) selected, she’s known for easy cards. That was probably the worst decision in UEFA Women’s Champions League history.”
The Athletic has contacted UEFA for comment.
Chelsea took a 1-0 lead into Saturday’s home leg following their victory at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys last weekend.
Barcelona drew level in the tie after 25 minutes through Bonmati’s deflected effort. They were awarded a penalty in the latter stages of the second half as Ballon d’Or winner Bonmati was brought down by Jess Carter and Ashley Lawrence.
Bonmati levelled opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
“I felt like it was a bit soft,” Carter said. “I haven’t seen it back. I know there was contact with myself and Bonmati but I think she went down a bit soft. I think if it was anywhere else on the pitch you’d probably not give it. Maybe I’ve got to watch it back and see but in the moment I felt it was a bit soft.”
The defeat denies USWNT-bound Hayes a final chance to win the Champions League — the only major trophy that has eluded her as a manager — before she departs Chelsea this summer. Chelsea reached the final in 2021 but were beaten by Barcelona.
“I’m gutted for them (the players), we were robbed,” Hayes, who was visibly emotional at full time, continued. “I genuinely believe we were on top of the game, we’d just hit the post, we could feel the momentum going in that direction, but we didn’t get the chance to experience that.
“We lost Mayra (Ramirez) after training, that didn’t help, but you need everything to go your way. Two yellow cards, a deflection and a penalty, everything went their way.”
Barcelona will play the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon on May 25 as bid to defend their title.
On the refereeing decisions during Saturday’s semi-final, Barcelona manager Jonatan Giraldez said: “It’s part of the game, when we play at home, we create a penalty and centimetres, two or three centimetres, we were disallowed in that situation, so it’s part of the game.
“The most important thing for me is management of the emotions, when you are winning, when you are losing the game. So for me, today we were better than Chelsea, in the first leg we were better than Chelsea, we create more than them and we deserve the victory.”
(Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
