Blues head coach Sonia Bompastor made eight changes to her starting line-up against Liverpool from the side that had beaten Wolfsburg 2-1 to progress to the Women's Champions League quarter-final.

Those alterations included a first-ever Chelsea start for 19-year-old midfielder Lexi Potter, while Veerle Buurman – also just 19 years old – partnered Millie Bright in the heart of the defence.

But Bompastor was under no illusions that this had the potential to be a difficult task, especially as the Blues had struggled to a 1-1 draw against the same side just a month earlier.

Yet two early goals from Sam Kerr quickly set the tone for what would be an emphatic victory at the BrewDog Stadium in St Helens, and culminated in what the head coach described as a 'perfect' way to end 2025.

Clinical Blues

Bompastor had frequently called for her side to be more clinical when we had scored only one goal in three out of the four matches in November. When December began, we succumbed to our first-ever Women's Super League defeat under the French coach with a 1-0 home loss at the hands of Everton.

Following that disappointment, the resilience of this Chelsea side shone through with a 6-0 win over Roma in the UWCL, a 3-0 victory over Brighton in the WSL, and a hard-fought 2-1 triumph away at Wolfsburg.

Just four days after playing in Germany, we travelled to Liverpool and put on a nine-goal show in St Helens, and despite the high scoreline, we remained clinical, just as Bompastor had asked.

Despite netting nine times, we only fired 18 shots towards goal, leaving us with a 50 per cent conversion rate. To put that figure into context, Chelsea have scored 19 goals in 11 WSL games this season from 62 shots on target, a rate of 30.6 per cent.

While the Blues head coach was delighted that we netted nine times in our Women's League Cup win, the conversion rate from the total shots on goal will no doubt be another pleasing factor in what was an extremely successful day.

Hat-trick hero

With six goals and four assists already under her belt for the season, Johanna Rytting Kanerd has more goal involvements than any other Chelsea player in the current campaign.

Sunday afternoon saw the Sweden international complete a perfect hat-trick in our 9-1 victory, scoring the first with a sublime curling effort from the edge of the box on her unfavoured left foot, the second from close range with her right, and the third from a header when Sjoeke Nusken's shot had rebounded off the woodwork.

Rytting Kaneryd continued the whole team's theme of shooting accuracy, scoring three from only five attempts in total. The winger also created chances for her team-mates, making 19 passes in the final third and playing six crosses into the box during the 90 minutes.

Team player Guro

The unsung hero of the day was the experienced Guro Reiten. Finding her way back into the side following a period of parental leave in November, the Norwegian forward started the match against Liverpool and put in a typically unselfish display.

Weighing in with a hat-trick of assists – setting up goals for Kerr, Wieke Kaptein and Aggie Beever-Jones – Reiten did not take a single shot of her own during the afternoon as she instead supported those alongside her.

In fact, the 31-year-old created more chances (five) than any other Chelsea player on Sunday, while also winning the joint-most tackles (three) to complete a hard-working and under-the-radar display as we sealed our place in the competition's semi-finals.