Chelsea returned to winning ways in emphatic style by beating Roma 6-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League to move third in the league phase.
Having struggled to break down Everton in their shock league defeat on Sunday, the Blues required a moment of fortune to crack Roma’s rearguard resolve.
In a desperate bid to prevent Sam Kerr heading home Sandy Baltimore’s deep cross, defender Valentina Bergamaschi inadvertently slammed a header past her own goalkeeper on 13 minutes.
Chelsea quickly set about finding the cushion of a second goal, but continued to toil against Roma’s low block until Keira Walsh produced a sublime diagonal cross to pick out Johanna Rytting Kaneryd at the back post, who nodded down for Wieke Kaptein to fire home.
As the half-time whistle approached, Chelsea squandered further chances with club record scorer Sam Kerr guilty of nodding over the bar from yards out.
However the Blues did add a third before the interval, with Rytting Kaneryd popping up at the back post once again, this time to tap home into an empty net after Kerr had been denied by a sharp Olivie Lukasova save.
With a precious three points already secured Sonia Bompastor made changes for the second half, with Sjoeke Nusken making an instant impact by adding the hosts’ fourth goal of the night from the penalty spot.
The German international was initially penalised for fouling Roma midfielder Marta Pandini in the box before referee Ewa Augustyn reversed her decision after a video assistant referee (VAR) check.
With confidence running high for Chelsea, another pair of second-half substitutes combined for their fifth goal. Guro Reiten did well to control the ball with her back to goal in the box before laying off to Maika Hamano to curl into the bottom corner, with Lucy Bronze curling a cross-come-shot over Lukasova for the sixth goal late on.
The victory takes Chelsea up to third spot in the league phase standings with 11 points, with the possibility of securing automatic qualification for the quarter-finals with a win against Wolfsburg on matchday six.
Defeat means Roma are eliminated with one game of the league phase to spare after collecting just one point from their first five fixtures.
