PARIS: Last season’s beaten finalists Chelsea were sent packing from the Women’s Champions League on Thursday after a 4-0 defeat away to Wolfsburg in Germany in a dramatic final round of group games.
Captain Svenja Huth and Tabea Wassmuth, the competition’s leading scorer, both scored twice as the Germans claimed the comprehensive win they needed to advance from Group A.
Juventus went through as well, hammering hapless Servette of Switzerland 4-0 in Turin, where this season’s final is due to be played.
Chelsea, who lost last season’s final to Barcelona, had come into the last round of group matches in first place but Thursday’s results meant a three-way tie on 11 points.
It came down to results only in games involving Wolfsburg, Juventus and Chelsea and it is the English side who are ultimately eliminated on head-to-head goal difference.
That is a sore one to take for Emma Hayes’s Chelsea side, who had beaten Wolfsburg in last season’s quarter-finals.
The Germans, two-time former winners of the Champions League who have also lost three finals since 2016, got their revenge as Huth netted with two close-range finishes to put them 2-0 ahead after 23 minutes.
Huth then set up Wassmuth to control and poke in the third just before the hour mark, and the same player then pounced on poor defending by Erin Cuthbert to smash in Wolfsburg’s fourth goal and her eighth in the group stage.
Italian international Cristiana Girelli scored two penalties for Juventus in Turin after Sweden midfielder Lina Hurtig had put them in front. Substitute Agnese Bonfantini then made it 4-0 late on.
Earlier French champions Paris Saint-Germain, two-time beaten finalists, hammered Breidablik of Iceland 6-0 to finish with a perfect record in Group B, with Canada’s Jordyn Huitema scoring twice.
They had already qualified for the last eight along with Real Madrid, who eased to a 3-0 win over Kharkiv of Ukraine on Thursday.
Holders Barcelona finished their group stage on Wednesday with six wins out of six, with Arsenal, Bayern Munich and record seven-time winners Lyon completing the line-up for the knockout phase.
The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on Monday. – AFP
