Chelsea on Tuesday laid down a marker to their UEFA Women’s Champions League rivals as a destructive first-half performance set up a 7-0 thumping of Servette FCCF in Switzerland.
Paris Saint-Germain also eased to a comfortable 4-0 win at home to Real Madrid, but the power of Chelsea’s performance is likely to send shivers down the spines of their rivals.
Sam Kerr and Fran Kirby each scored twice as last season’s runners-up raced to a six-goal half-time lead.
Photo: Reuters
Melanie Leupolz and Canada international Jessie Fleming also netted in the opening period before Guro Reiten completed the rout less than five minutes after the break.
“I think in the first half we were unbelievable,” England striker Kirby told uefa.com. “We set the tone from the beginning. We were really happy to come away with seven goals and three points. Everyone played an amazing game.”
This was the biggest winning margin in the inaugural Women’s Champions League group stage, although someway short of the all-time record — Apollon’s 21-0 victory over Ada Velipoje in 2012.
Chelsea suffered a first-half nightmare of their own when losing 4-0 to Barcelona in the 2020-2021 final in May.
The English champions top Group A, two points ahead of VfL Wolfsburg with whom they shared a 3-3 draw last month.
On Tuesday, the Germans thought they had secured all three points against Juventus in Turin after goals from Lena Lattwein and Tabea Wassmuth wiped out Cristiana Girelli’s opener for the home side.
However, Wolfsburg’s Felicitas Rauch collected a second yellow card in the 90th minute, and from the resulting free-kick, the ball fell for Girelli to fire home her second and secure a 2-2 draw.
PSG made it three wins from three in Group B with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Parc des Princes.
Marie-Antoinette Katoto kept her head to put PSG into a 13th minute lead and, after Sara Dabritz had doubled the score shortly before halftime, added a second — her 18th goal in all competitions this season — to make it 3-0 early in the second half.
Madrid defender Rocio Galvez then sliced an attempted clearance past her own goalkeeper to complete a miserable evening for the Spaniards.
PSG top the group with nine points, three ahead of Madrid.
The Spanish side still look likely to qualify after the other game in Group B between Ukrainians WFC Kharkiv and Icelandic side Breidablik ended in a goalless draw, giving both sides their first point of the campaign.
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