Blues thrash Twente by 6-1 but it could easily have been 20 as they stay top of their Champions League group
By Paul Lagan at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea 6 v FC Twente 1
Chelsea smashed their Dutch visitors 6-1 at Stamford Bridge to stay top of their table in the Champions League group stage, but there is still some work to do to win the group.
There were some great goals, some mistakes from both sides and quite a bit of cheer for the relatively sparse crowd who donned their winter warmers to brave the cold weather in SW6.
Catarino Macario opened the score on two minutes before Twente were awarded a penalty to level the match.
From there on in it was a case of by how many goals the Blues would score.
Five more were secured with gives Chelsea 15 points from five matches with a crunch match next Tuesday when the west Londoners travel to the Spanish capital to take on Madrid, three points behind but with a better goal difference.
It took less than two minutes for Catarina Macario to open the scoring.
Seconds before fellow striker Mayra Ramirez won the ball in the visitors final third. She and Macario exchanged passes before they were blocked out but after Macario tried a shot that rebounded back to her on the right, she coolly half-vollyed the ball over Olivia Clark and into the far side of the goal.
Erin Cuthbert should have doubled the lead on 12 minutes when after a good set-up play, the ball was fed to her, on the six-yard box, but her volley went high over the Twente crossbar.
Zecira Musovic produced a fine save to thwart Jaimy Ravensbergen, after Chelsea, trying to pass the ball out from the back lost the ball when Oriane Jean-Francis's pass was intercepted, allowing the opposition to counter quickly.
Maika Hamano was guilty of pulling back Charlotte Hulst on 28 minutes. She got a yellow card for it. But as it happened in the Chelsea penalty area, she gave away a spot kick too.
Up stepped Kayleigh Van Dooren to slot home the equaliser.
But that lasted seconds as from the next attack Ramirez set up Oriane Jean-Francois on the left of the Twente area.
She pushed on, and let fly with a powerful left-footer which zipped past Clark to restore the lead for the home side.
Number three came on 35 minutes and it was a piece of South American magic.
Aggie Beever-Jones won the ball on the left. Kit fell to Ramirez, who unmarked, looked up from a least 35 metres out – saw Clark off her line and produced and audacious shot that zoomed over the goalkeeper and sadly for her the ball dropped into the empty net.
But even so, the Blues were open at the back and a shot from Ravensbergen was just inches wide.
The goal fest continued on 38 minutes when Clark's short pass out was intercepted by Cuthbert, who broke free. Her shot was blocked by Clark but the momentum of the ball looped back towards goal, and a desperate stretch by Anna Knol to clear only helped the ball into the net make it 4-1 to the Blues.
An injury to Jean-Francis just before half-time saw her limp off the pitch to be replaced by Wieke Kaptein, an ex-Twente player.
Chelsea made two changes at half-time – on came, Guro Reiten and Sjoeke Nusken - off went Ramirez, and Bjorn
Nusken took two minutes to add to the score, when she beat the offside trap, latched on to a deep Hamano cross and nodded home past Clark to make it 5-1.
Beever-Jones should have made it six on 54 minutes, but she tow-poked the ball inches wide of goal.
Soon it was time for youngster Lola Brown and Ashley Lawrence to have a run out – both came on, on 61 minutes. Off went Macario, and Charles.
With the clock ticking down, it seemed a while before a goal – and then, on 85 minutes, right back Eve Perisset smashed home from 10 yards out to make it 6-1.
Teams: Chelsea: Musovic, Bright, Ramirez, Cuthbert, Macario, Bjorn, Perisset, Charles, Hamano, Jean-Francois, Beever-Jones
Subs: Hampton, Cox, Nusken, Reiten, Lawrence, Kaptein, Rytting Kaneryd, Bronze, Brown
FC Twente: Clark, Carleer, Knol, Peddemore, Hulst, Van Ginkel, Ravensbergen, Van Dooren, Tuin, Vliek, Van Dijk
Subs: de Jong, Vissers, Everaerts, Diekman, Andradottir, Te Brake, Proost, Verdaasdonk, Galic, Van Der Vegt, Ivens
Referee|; Riem Hussein (Germany)
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