Published: 23:45, 1 April 2026 | Updated: 23:49, 1 April 2026

Sonia Bompastor promised in her programme notes that her team would put everything on the line to fight their way back into this Champions League tie - and they did this and more.

Never would she have presumed, though, that she would be unable to watch her team limp off down the tunnel at the final whistle, having been shown her marching orders moments earlier.

Bompastor prides herself on respect in the women’s game: respecting the opposition, respecting the referees. She is not quite at the place of respecting the ball yet, but she does not need to go far to find pointers on this.

That is why the final few minutes of this chaotic, gripping game will have come as such a shock to those who have spent more than five minutes near the composed, yet undoubtedly competitive, young French coach, as she headed down the tunnel with a red card in her rear-view mirror.

Yet there is plenty of context - and it is one which begins in the first leg...