Sam Kerr scored a superb hat-trick as Chelsea ran out 4-1 winners over Paris FC at Stamford Bridge in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
The French visitors played some excellent attacking football in an evenly-balanced first half, deservedly equalising through Thea Greboval’s towering header after Kerr had opened the scoring for Chelsea on the end of a teasing Lauren James cross.
But it was the Blues who dominated after the break, with Kerr bagging her second shortly after the interval, meeting Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s low cross to restore Chelsea’s lead.
The Australian completed her hat-trick in 56 minutes with a brilliant third, latching on to a long ball forward from the goalkeeper and sending an audacious lobbed shot over the goalkeeper from outside of the box.
Chelsea controlled proceedings from thereon in, withdrawing Kerr and James to rest them up for the weekend’s fixture against Leicester City.
Substitute Sophie Ingle added gloss to the scoreline with a volleyed finish from a corner in stoppage time to make it four.
This was always going to be a tough test for Chelsea against the giant-killing Parisians, who knocked out Arsenal and Wolfsburg in the qualifying stages.
But passing the test with such ease has left The Blues pretty well placed in second spot in Group D after the opening two rounds of matches.
The back-to-back meetings with Hacken in December will likely determine who tops the group, with the Swedish club currently sitting on six points after wins over Paris and Real Madrid.
But Chelsea will feel a lot more comfortable of securing at least a top-two finish now that they’ve got a win on the board after that disappointing draw in Madrid last time out.
Kerr has now scored 16 goals in 26 Champions League appearances for Chelsea – a tally that includes two hat-tricks.
Chelsea have only ever lost one group-stage match in the WCL, with their record now standing at 9 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss in 14 matches.
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