AUSTRIA, 11 NOV – Two goals from Australian striker Sam Kerr secured a 6-0 win for Chelsea against St. Pölten at the NV Arena on Tuesday, extending their unbeaten Women’s Champions League run, and scoring their 150th goal this UEFA competition.
Kerr’s first Chelsea start since December 2023 saw her initially frustrated by two disallowed offside assists for Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson, but she secured a goal after she curved away from defenders and tucked the ball past Carina Schlüter for the Blues’ fourth in the 75th minute.
“I would’ve liked the team to score the second goal a little bit earlier.” said head coach Sonia Bompastor. “I think it was a great performance – we scored some great goals, and overall it was really positive.”
Kerr found her second goal in the 92nd minute inside the box, slotting a header past a frustrated Schlüter.
After hitting the post early on, Chelsea scored in the 44th minute when Catarina Macario finished a quick transition move from Johanna Rytting-Kaneryd with a powerful shot across the goal.
The Blues were awarded a penalty in the 51st minute after Izabela Križaj fouled Thompson in the box, and Macario converted the resulting spot-kick two minutes later to extend the lead.
“They did a great job in defending and trying to stay compact against us, which made it even harder,” said Macario. “I think when we got that second goal right before half time, that gave us a little bit more confidence to come out in the second half and do our thing, and open the game up a bit more and score more goals.”
Dutch international Wieke Kaptein, the youngest in Chelsea’s starting 11 at age 20, gave the Blues their first goal of the game after she slotted the ball past Shlüter following a precise cutback from Ellie Carpenter to lose her defenders, leaving Chelsea 1-0 away from home.
In her first appearance in a Chelsea shirt since March, Lauren James added to the scoresheet with a long-range strike from outside the box that took a deflection off defender Lisa Ebert for an own goal in the 86th minute.
Macario said: “She [Bompastor] knew we had the quality to break them down, it just required the patience and requires us playing quickly and working off each other.”
The Blues moved up to second in the league with seven points, and now shift their focus to their next WSL game against Liverpool in St. Helens next Sunday, and a Champions League fixture against three-time UWCL winners Barcelona at Stamford Bridge on Thursday 20 November.
