Glasgow City 0-3 Chelsea Ladies (0-4 agg)
Chelsea Ladies secured a place in the last 16 of the Champions League thanks to a resounding victory at Glasgow City on Wednesday.
The Women’s Super League and FA Cup champions are competing in the European competition for the first time but have taken to it seemlessly, brushing aside Scottish champions Glasgow 4-0 on aggregate.
Eni Aluko opened the scoring midway through the first half in Scotland, with Fran Kirby and Gilly Flaherty securing the win in the second half.
Manager Emma Hayes said: “It was a fantastic performance and I’m equally delighted to keep a clean sheet and score three goals. We showed why we are champions of England.”
Class performance tonight @ChelseaLFC 5th clean sheet in a row too. Delighted to score my first @UWCL goal 🙂 Excited for Monday’s draw #CL💙
— Eniola Aluko (@EniAlu) October 14, 2015
The first half of the match had been a war of attrition, with the Blues, who were favourites, keeping possession of the ball and not straying far into the Glaswegian half.
Hayes added: “’We could have pressed them and stayed in their half, and the outcome may have been the same because there is a difference in the quality of players.
“But we have to prepare this team to play and win in Europe – so do it early.
“Twelve months ago, the prospect of coming into a game against Glasgow as favourites would have been laughable – now we can live with it, we’re happy with it.”
She said the FA Cup win had been a turning point for the club ahead of their Women’s Super League triumph.
She said: “We started the season strongly before the World Cup, but then in the FA Cup we learned to win – and we learned to win in front of 30,000 people.”
The draw for the last 16 is on Monday, with the first leg set for November 11 or 12 and the return match a week later.
Feature image of Emma Hayes courtesy of Glasgow City FC, via Youtube, with thanks
