Chelsea’s 100 per cent start to their Champions League campaign continued as they came from behind to beat Celtic 2-1 at Parkhead.
The hosts, group-stage debutants this season, took a shock lead in the 22nd minute when Murphy Agnew’s strike gave them their first ever goal in the competition proper.
Much-changed Chelsea managed to quickly turn things around through goals from Maika Hamano and Ashley Lawrence.
After boss Sonia Bompastor made three substitutions at the interval, they then had numerous chances in the second half but were unable to make the most of any of them, with Celtic goalkeeper Kelsey Daugherty pulling off some good saves.
Chelsea subsequently had Aggie Beever-Jones sent off in stoppage time as they emerged with a narrow win that took them to nine points from three games in Group B – and extended their winning start to the season to nine matches in all competitions.
They are three points clear in the pool of second-placed Real Madrid, while Elena Sadiku’s Celtic stay bottom, yet to get a point on the board, three behind Twente.
Chelsea on Saturday have a Stamford Bridge clash against Women’s Super League leaders Manchester City, who they trail by a point with a game in hand, and ahead of this match Bompastor has spoken about the need to “manage” players.
The Blues had travelled to Scotland without Millie Bright, Kadeisha Buchanan, Sjoeke Nusken and Mayra Ramirez, and that contributed to a total of eight changes made to the starting line-up from Sunday’s 3-0 win at Liverpool.
The early stages saw the visitors make unsuccessful attempts via Oriane Jean-Francois and Wieke Kaptein – and they then found themselves behind as Celtic scored an historic opener with their first chance of the contest, Amy Gallacher playing in Agnew, who slotted past Zecira Musovic to bring a huge roar around the stadium.
Chelsea hit back six minutes later when Beever-Jones produced a cutback and Hamano hit a shot that Daugherty got a hand to but could not keep out.
Four minutes on from that and they had another, Lawrence firing in at the second attempt after Erin Cuthbert’s shot was blocked by the legs of Daugherty.
Cuthbert tried her luck again to no avail, while Lucy Ashworth-Clifford saw an attempt dealt with by Musovic just before half-time.
Bompastor opted to make a triple substitution at the break, bringing on Lucy Bronze, Guro Reiten and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd.
And within a few minutes, Bronze had a header cleared off the line and Reiten struck over the bar.
A further Chelsea adjustment brought Catarina Macario off the bench, and she was then swiftly to the fore, unleashing three shots in quick succession. Daugherty parried the first and after the second curled wide, the goalkeeper did well to tip the third over.
After Nathalie Bjorn skewed over from a good position, Ashworth-Clifford brought a save out of Musovic.
Chelsea’s push for a third then quickly resumed, but with Daugherty keeping out a Jean-Francois shot and Beever-Jones header and Macario blasting a free-kick off-target, there remained only a goal in it.
They then got to the final whistle with only 10 players as Beever-Jones was dismissed in the closing moments following a challenge on Colette Cavanagh.
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