Chelsea swept past Paris FC to finish undefeated at the end of the Champions League group stage, having already secured passage to the quarter-finals. Goals from Fran Kirby, Mia Fishel, Guro Reiten and Maren Mjelde, with two assists by Jelena Cankovic, secured a 4-0 win and confirmed the home team exit the competition.
“It showed a maturity, we were clinical, we had six chances, four goals,” Emma Hayes, the Chelsea manager, said of the performance. “There were young players who’ve not had a lot of minutes in the Champions League and it just shows you what quality we’ve got in our squad to be able to put in a performance like that.”
For Paris FC, the dream of making history and reaching the knockouts for the first time since the 2012‑13 season – when, as FC Juvisy, they reached the semi-finals – was not to be.
The club had been out in force building for this fixture, with videos shot around the capital of the players unfurling banners and putting up posters as they drove for a record crowd at the Stade Sébastien Charléty. In reaching the group stage the Parisian side had knocked out Arsenal and Wolfsburg, before beating Real Madrid twice to ensure they had a chance of progressing from the group. Not only did they need a result, they also needed Häcken to drop points against Real Madrid.
The public responded to the call to show up, but the task was too big. Chelsea may have already qualified beforehand but, with a host of players hoping to make their mark in the starting XI and momentum to maintain, the English champions did not roll over for them.
Hayes took full advantage of the opportunity to rotate, making nine changes to the team that beat Brighton 3-0 on Saturday. Just Ève Périsset and Kirby remained in the starting XI, while Aggie Beever-Jones was handed her Champions League debut. For Paris FC, there were seven changes to the team that secured a 2-0 win away at Le Havre on Sunday.
This was not the slickest of Chelsea displays, wholesale changes will have that effect, but it was efficient. They found a cutting edge in the final third while their hosts could not.
“It’s the failures along the way that has led us to build a squad like this,” Hayes said. “Recognising that to compete on all fronts the quality has to be the standard that it is so you can make these changes. And if you want to be picking up medals at the end of the season, sometimes you have to sacrifice a little bit of your own personal playing time to do that.”
They went ahead in the 10th minute, as a perfectly weighted ball from Cankovic on the left looped down towards Kirby at the far post and the 5ft 2in forward sent in an unmarked header.
Paris had opportunities to come back into the game. Mathilde Bourdieu sent a shot straight at Zecira Musovic in the Chelsea goal and Clara Matéo pulled an attempt wide after breaking through.
The travelling Blues punished their profligacy. Beever-Jones latched on to a long ball, arguably offside in the process, reached the byline, pulled the ball back to Cankovic and the Serbia international forward pinged it towards Fishel to head home under Chiamaka Nnadozie, who should have done better.
Paris had a gilt-edged chance to reduce the margin in the second half with Julie Dufour firing over from close range. Their hopes fading, Chelsea punished them further midway through the half, the substitute Reiten pouncing on a mix-up between Julie Soyer and Nnadozie to fire in. Mjelde put the cherry on the cake, heading in from a Reiten corner with just over 10 minutes remaining. Job done.
