A
much-changed Chelsea side eased to victory at Paris FC to end their Women’s
Champions League group stage undefeated.
First-half
headers from Fran Kirby and Mia Fishel before late efforts from Guro Reiten and
Maren Mjelde secured a comfortable 4-0 victory in the French capital for the
Blues.
Emma Hayes’
side had already guaranteed themselves a quarter-final spot and she took the
opportunity to shuffle her pack.
After an
even opening, it was England international Kirby who broke the deadlock with
the visitors’ first clear opportunity.
Jelena
Cankovic crossed to the back post where Kirby arrived unmarked to head home for
her first Champions League goal of the campaign.
The hosts,
making their group-stage debut — having knocked Arsenal out earlier in the
tournament — responded well as Chelsea goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was forced
into a smart save, courtesy of an acute Mathilde Bourdieu.
Paris, though,
had not learnt their lesson from Kirby’s opener and were caught out in
startlingly-similar fashion later in the half as Cankovic this time crossed for
Fishel to head home.
With the
hosts needing victory to keep alive their hopes of reaching the last eight,
Julie Dufour missed a sitter after the restart, leaning back and firing over
the crossbar from close range.
A number of
defensive mix-ups allowed Chelsea to wrap up the win as Reiten was the
beneficiary, tapping home after miscommunication on the edge of the Paris box.
There was
more questionable defending as Mjelde flicked home a corner with goalkeeper
Chiamaka Nnadozie poorly positioned.
Chelsea were
good value for their win and will be seeded for the quarter-final draw on
February 6 – avoiding some of Europe’s big-hitters.
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