Sam Kerr has scored four times as Chelsea have run riot in an 8-0 win over Albanian side KS Vllaznia Shkodër to remain unbeaten in their Champions League group.
She formed a devastating triumvirate with Guro Reiten and Pernille Harder as they followed up their tight 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain a week ago with a much more comfortable outing at their London home.
PSG’s 0-0 draw with Real Madrid made things even sweeter for the Blues, who now sit alone atop group A with two wins from two games and a 9-0 for-and-against.
The Spanish side only beat Vllaznia 2-0 in their opening match, but their next match against Chelsea is not until November 24, allowing the men’s FIFA World Cup clear air.
In the meantime, Kerr’s Matildas will play friendlies against Sweden at AAMI Park on November 12 and Thailand at Central Coast Stadium three days later, when she may still be riding high after the romp at Kingsmeadow.
Kerr’s first goal against Vllaznia came in the 10th minute when Reiten found Harder near the edge of the 18-yard box. She turned and found Kerr streaking across the box, unleashing a first-touch strike while wheeling around towards goal.
The trio changed up the order of things for the second goal, with Harder sending a perfectly weighted through ball down the left wing to the feet of Reiten, whose first touch was similarly placed right on the money for another first-touch finish for Kerr.
Reiten and Harder combined to make it 3-0 at half-time, before Kerr got back involved after the break.
There was some debate about her hat-trick goal, which came when she headed home a corner from, of course, Reiten.
In the moment it appeared captain Magdalena Eriksson might have claimed the goal as she leapt just in front of her Australian teammate, but replays showed the ball skimming over the Swede’s head to Kerr to nod in her third.
Kerr’s final goal came far too easily after Harder found Reiten near the left corner of the six-yard box and she slid a ball back into the centre, where Kerr netted with her left foot.
Harder finished off a hat-trick of her own, slotting twice from goal-mouth scrambles, while Kateřina Svitková also got on the scorers’ sheet. (ABC)