Chelsea thrash Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in Women’s Super League

BY GINA BAGNULO

It was a less than ideal night for Crystal Palace as Chelsea beat them 7-0 at Selhurst Park on Friday.

This was no ordinary fixture for the Eagles as it marked the first time the team played a game on home turf in the WSL, taking on the current league champions.

While their future would turn sour, the first half saw Palace hold their own.

Aggie Beever-Jones put Chelsea ahead as the England- nternational capitalised on a cross from Johanna Ritten Kaneryd to leave the score 1-0 at half-time.

As the second half commenced, there was still a general optimism that Palace could turn the game around and catch up to their opposition. However those hopes would soon be dispelled as new Chelsea signing Lucy Bronze scored off a rebound.

The Eagles’ luck only worsened as Lauren James scored a third goal for the Blues off the back of a pass from Mayra Ramirez. Guro Reiten made it 4-0 as she struck the ball into the back of the Palace net.

Chelsea’s other goals were scored by Nathalie Bjorn, Guro Reiten and Katrina Macario.

While a massive loss for the home side, new American signing Katie Stengel was Palace’s most promising offensive asset as she took multiple shots on the Chelsea net with the help of assists from Annabelle Blanchard, Lily Woodham and Indiah-Paige Riley.

“These nights are tough and we’ve had back to back world class opposition,” said Eagles manager Laura Kaminski.

Kaminski maintains that her team is ready to learn from these losses and carry on in the league with determination.

“It’s about as tough as it gets in terms of a start for a club that has just come up but by no means am I hiding and making any excuses in that sense. The first half was strong, as it was against Spurs, but we must be better coming out after half-time. It’s as simple as that and I’ve got a group that isn’t hiding from that.”

Prior to the start of the season, all eyes were on Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor after succeeding club legend Emma Hayes. She has proven sceptics wrong after achieving two WSL league wins in a row.

Although Chelsea have got on to a winning start in their first two games of the season, their next fixtures against Manchester United and Arsenal look to be more competitive. Bompastor shares that sentiment and said the following on her team facing these prominent sides,

“For sure, Man United and Arsenal are great opponents, they have a lot of experience, they are a great squad and it will maybe be different games even if i’m used to that,” she said.

“When I was in France it was the same, I just feel like when teams play against Chelsea that’s always a different game for them. I don’t know if Crystal Palace will play back five against the other teams, but they just decided to play back five against Chelsea.”

Crystal Palace face Aston Villa on October 2 and Chelsea clash with Manchester United on October 6.

PICTURE: PA