Paris FC 0-4 Chelsea: Blues finish group stage unbeaten with ruthless win
- Published
- comments
Chelsea are seeded in the quarter-final draw and will play their second leg at Stamford Bridge given their status as group winners
Chelsea midfielder Jelena Cankovic says players want to give boss Emma Hayes "the send-off she deserves" by winning the Women's Champions League in her final season with the club.
The Blues have enjoyed major success since Hayes took charge in 2012 but are yet to win the Champions League.
They had already qualified for this season's quarter-finals by winning Group D, but completed their unbeaten group stage in Europe with a ruthless 4-0 victory away at Paris FC.
Cankovic assisted Fran Kirby and Mia Fishel for Chelsea's first two goals and was voted player of the match.
"I'm really happy with the team performance, and my performance," she told Uefa after the game.
"But the most important thing is the three points and that we finish the group stage on a high. I'm very happy I could contribute to the win. It shows where we are as a team. We want to win every match we play, but we'll take it game by game."
On winning the competition with Hayes in her final season with the club, the Serbia international added: "Of course it would be really great if we could give Emma the send-off she deserves."
Chelsea started brightly in Paris as Kirby headed home a Cankovic cross to hand her side the lead within the first 10 minutes.
Hayes made nine changes from the side who beat Brighton 3-0 at the weekend and were often unsettled at the back, but the French hosts couldn't make the most of their chances.
Fishel made Paris pay for their lack of cutting edge when she headed another Cankovic delivery past Chiamaka Nnadozie to double Chelsea's lead.
Paris needed a win to be able to qualify for the last eight and battled diligently to try and find a way back, but Julie Dufour epitomised their final-third efforts when she thrashed over from close range early in the second half.
Two more goals came after the break for the Blues, with Guro Reiten poking into the back of the net after a goalkeeping mishap and Maren Mjelde flicking a corner past Nnadozie.
Chelsea's progression as group winners means they will be seeded in the quarter-final draw - which takes place on Tuesday, 6 February - and will avoid holders Barcelona,eight-time winners Lyon, and Paris St-Germain.
Swedish side Hacken also reached the quarter-finals from Group D after beating Real Madrid 1-0, while Paris FC finished third in the group.
Much-changed Chelsea come out on top
With the game being little more than a formality and a busy domestic schedule on the way, it came as no surprise when Emma Hayes rang the changes to her Chelsea side as only Kirby and Eve Perisset retained their places in the starting line-up.
From the beginning, it was evident that Chelsea had not put out a full-strength line-up as Paris found success around the visitors' box.
Goalkeeper Zecira Musovic was forced to claw away a Mathilde Bourdieu strike, while Gaetane Thiney narrowly missed a lob from distance and thrashed another effort over the crossbar.
Celina Ould Hocine should have done better when she failed to hit the target after meeting a Julie Soyer cross inside the six-yard box.
However, Paris' advances did little to unsettle Chelsea given Kirby's opener - enabled by an excellent piece of footwork from Cankovic to chop past her marker - gave them room to make mistakes.
The second-half introduction of Reiten and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd bolstered Chelsea going forwards and Reiten's goal put the game to bed before Mjelde rounded off the evening.
Chelsea saw the game out, emerged with a comfortable scoreline and can now return their attention to domestic matters.
Given that this was the first of four games in four competitions across the space of just 13 days, Chelsea boss Hayes can be reassured that her side can cope with the demand for rotation.