By Paul Lagan at Kingsmeadow Stadium
Chelsea 8 v Vllaznia 0
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Sam Kerr notched four and Pernille Harder hit a hat-trick as Chelsea went on a goal-spree to destroy Albanian champions KFF Vllaznia 8-0 at Kingsmeadow tonight.
Following on from their 1-0 UEFA Champions League group win in Paris last week, The Blues are firmly in control of the group after PSG and Real Madrid drew 0-0 this evening.
Chelsea will have much tougher times than this if they are to register their first Champions League win. But as the cliche goes, they can only beat whoever is in front of them.
The result of this game was never in doubt – all that was, was by how many goals the Blues would win by.
It took a whole 10 minutes for Chelsea to open the scoring – a clever clipped left-footer by Sam Kerr, from close range, but in truth the west Londoners should have been a couple of goals ahead by then.
The remainder of the half was a procession in terms of possession and control of the game by Chelsea.
Kerr managed to get herself offside a couple of times, which may have given the Albanians a sense of confidence that wasn’t really justified.
And so it proved on 37 minutes when she latched onto a left wing cross by Guro Reiten and the Australian striker slotted cooly home.
That effectively killed off any resistance, and two minutes later Pernille Harder finished off a swift move with consummate professionalism to give the first half a more realistic 3-0 scoreline.
There was no change of personnel on Denise Reddy’s side at the break.
It took them until the 58th minute to register another attempt on goal, and it resulted in corner from Reiten and Kerr was on the spot to notch her second goal and her hat-trick came two minutes later. Her trademark backwards somersault gave the crowd something other than the goals to cheer.
Niamh Charles was replaced by Jess Carter. Katherine Svitkova took Rytting Kaneryd and Kerr was replaced by Beth England.
Number six was always on the cards and it was almost a replica. A high corner by Reiten and the ball fell to Svitkova and knocked onto Harder who pinched her second of the night on 72 minutes.
Reiten and Flemming were then replaced by Alsu Abullina and Fran Kirby.
Chelsea were in seventh heaven with 13 minutes left when Svitkova edged in front of substitute Viona Rexhepi and headed into an empty net.
Number eight came with a minute left through harder and the poor opposition had only the comfort of their fans who cheered them on through the the 90 minutes and had some respite when flares entered the pitch, holding the game up a couple of minutes.
Teams: Musovic, Ingle, Reiten, Perisset, Eriksson, Fleming, Rytting Kaneryd, Kerr, Charles, Harder, Buchanan
Subs: Berger, Orman, Nouwen, Bright, Carter, England, James, Svitkova, Kirby, Cuthbert, Abdullina
Vllaznia: Williams-Mosier, Maliqi, Cavanaugh, Patterson, Doci, Franca, Berisha, Gjini, Knox, Popovic, Bashka
Subs: Raxhimi, Rexhepi, Vuksani, Davidson, Shala, Ramadani, Lufo, Borci, Gjergji, Korda, Saranovic,
Referee: Sabina Bilic (Croatia)
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