Chelsea thrash Paris FC in women’s Champions League | The Express Tribune

LONDON:

English champions Chelsea thrashed Paris FC 4-0 in the second match day of the women’s Champions League on Wednesday.

Sandy Baltimore, from the penalty spot, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Alyssa Thompson and Erin Cuthbert were all on target for the London side.

Two-time women’s Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas hit a 71st-minute penalty to help Barcelona to a 4-0 victory over Roma.

Esmee Brugts opened the scoring in the second minute, with Kika Nazareth extending the lead before Putellas got her name on the scoreboard before Caroline Graham Hansen’s coup de grace on the whistle.

Record eight-time champions Lyon notched up a 3-0 victory over St Polten of Austria.

Germany’s Jule Brand and Lily Yohannes both scored maiden goals for the French side.

Those goals came either side of one from Norway’s Ada Hegerberg, the all-time UEFA club competition top scorer who now has 67 goals in 77 appearances and in 12 different seasons in the UEFA women’s Champions League.

And two-time championship winners Wolfsburg claimed a 2-1 victory over Norwegian side Valerenga.

The Germans took the lead through Lineth Beerensteyn, quickly nullified by Sara Horte. Janina Minge kept her cool with a penalty in the eighth minute of extra-time to seal victory on the road.

The final game of the evening saw a Linde Veefkind penalty in the 83rd minute seemingly salvage Belgian team Leuven a 1-1 draw with Dutch outfit Twente, for whom Jaimy Ravensbergen scored.

But there was similar late drama as midfielder Sara Pusztai struck six minutes into injury time to hand Leuven a 2-1 win.

For the first time this season, the women’s Champions League has 18 participating teams, playing six games each against different opponents in a league phase.

Only the top four qualify directly for the quarter-finals, with sides ranked fifth to 12th involved in a play-off to join them in the last eight.