Chelsea move closer to maiden C/league title with Ajax rout
Chelsea continued their quest for a maiden Women’s Champions League crown as a 3-0 first-leg victory seized control of their quarter-final against Ajax.
Lauren James’ 15th goal of the season set Chelsea on their way before a double from Sjoeke Nusken saw the Blues overpower a youthful Ajax on their first quarter-final appearance.
Chelsea welcome Ajax to Stamford Bridge on March 27, with Emma Hayes’ side in pole position to reach a fifth European semi-final in six seasons.
Having beaten Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich and Roma while navigating their way through a daunting group phase, Ajax’s young stars set about claiming another European scalp in front a 35,991 crowd – a Dutch record for a women’s game.
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Romee Leuchter nearly gave Ajax a dream start inside seven minutes, rattling the frame of the Chelsea goal, before Tiny Hoekstra forced an early save from Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton.
The early pressure kicked Chelsea into gear and the visitors soon took the lead, the prolific James timing her run in behind perfectly to gather Erin Cuthbert’s through ball after it ricocheted off two Ajax defenders, before coolly rounding the goalkeeper and converting to silence the Amsterdam crowd.
Chelsea looked to have doubled their lead five minutes before the interval, but Guro Reiten’s effort was ruled out after Nusken was adjudged to have interfered in play from an offside position.
But Ajax’s reprieve lasted all of three minutes, Nusken atoning for her role in Chelsea’s disallowed second goal by converting Reiten’s fine cross on the slide as Chelsea established a two-goal advantage on the stroke of half-time.
Ajax showed little sign of being able to chip away at the deficit after the break and, as fatigue began to set in, Chelsea all but put the game out of their reach with a little help from the bench.
After James forced a save from Ajax goalkeeper Regina Van Eijk and Erin Cuthbert blazed a glorious chance over, Chelsea got the third their dominance deserved, as substitute Catarina Macario crossed for Nusken to head in her second and underscore a dominant performance from the women in blue
Chelsea Women manager Emma Hayes: “I thought it was a really professional performance from the team. We defended solidly, as we have been doing. And then once we started to attack the spaces down the sides, we got good opportunities: four crosses, two goals in the first half.
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“Outstanding performances from [Kadeisha] Buchanan and Nüsken in particular, but the team as a whole, you could see they were confident. Once the game settled down, we controlled it.
“I was delighted to get the third goal. but it’s still only half-time. I want the crowd to come out and support us [next week], we have an amazing team and I want a bigger crowd than we have had in the Champions League… so far.”