The Blues went ahead within the opening quarter of an hour when a dangerous cross from Sandy Baltimore forced an own goal from the Italian side. That opener was followed up by a sweeping finish from Wieke Kaptein to put Chelsea in the driving seat, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd netted the third with a powerful strike high into the net.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first when we were awarded a penalty early in the second half, with substitute Sjoeke Nusken rolling the spot-kick home from 12 yards out.

A superb piece of combination play from Millie Bright and Reiten teed up Maika Hamano on the edge of the box, and the 21-year-old rounded off the evening with a sublime effort that flew into the bottom corner. The evening was rounded off with a beautiful angled chip from Lucy Bronze, as Chelsea followed up our disappointing loss to Everton with a rampant victory.

Off the mark quickly

Sonia Bompastor rang the changes following Sunday's defeat to Everton, as the head coach brought Millie Bright, Niamh Charles, Veerle Buurman, Kaptein, Rytting Kaneryd and Sam Kerr into the starting line-up.

The Blues got going with a high-tempo start, with Baltimore and Catarina Macario both going close early on. Roma fired a warning of their own, but Livia Peng came rushing out to clear the danger quickly.

The deadlock was broken after 13 minutes when a dangerous Baltimore cross from the left-hand side flew over the head of Kerr and was then turned in by Roma's Valentina Bergamaschi.

In the driving seat

The Blues were firmly in the driving seat when a long ball forward was headed across the box by Rytting Kaneryd. Kerr played a clever dummy, and Kaptein was able to sweep the ball home with a confident finish.

Chelsea could've been three goals to the good when Macario played a pinpoint cross to Kerr, but the Australian striker headed over with her attempt.

That mattered little when Charles beat her marker and put a cross in from the left and – when Kerr's shot ricocheted back out – Rytting Kaneryd finished with a powerful drive high into the roof of the net.

Nusken makes it four

Bompastor made three changes for the start of the second half, bringing on Maika Hamano, Nusken and Lexi Potter.

No sooner had the action restarted than the referee was heading over to the VAR monitor to check for a Chelsea penalty for a potential foul by Marta Pandini. After reviewing the evidence, the spot-kick was awarded, and substitute Nusken stepped up and rolled the ball under goalkeeper Olivie Lukasova.

Showing plenty of promise for the future, 19-year-old Potter forced Lukasova into making a fine save when she unleashed a fierce shot from the edge of the area.

Dominance asserted

With Chelsea so firmly in control, the game's tempo briefly dropped. That was until Hamano popped up with our fifth of the evening.

A long ball out of the defence from Bright picked out Guro Reiten, who turned and chested the ball down in the penalty area and laid it off to her Japanese team-mate. Hamano instinctively shot from the edge of the area and netted with a sublime finish befitting of the work that led up to it.

With less than 10 minutes to play, Lucy Bronze cut inside and drove into the box and lofted a superb angled chip beyond the reach of Lukasova.

We could've added a seventh in added time when Potter's through ball found Nusken, but the German international had her attempt saved. Bompastor's side couldn't have responded any better to the weekend's setback.

What it means...

Chelsea move into an automatic qualification spot in the UWCL league phase table in third place with one match still to play away at Wolfsburg next week.

What comes next...

We return to Women's Super League action with an away fixture against Brighton on Sunday, with kick-off set for 11:55am.

The teams

Chelsea: Peng, Bronze, Bright (c), Buurman, Charles, Walsh (Potter h/t), Kaptein, Macario (Nusken h/t), Rytting Kaneryd (Jean-Francois 61), Kerr (Reiten 70), Baltimore (Hamano h/t)
Unused subs: Spencer, Carpenter, Thompson, Girma, Beever-Jones, Sarwie
Scorers: Bergamaschi OG 13, Kaptein 26, Rytting Kaneryd 44, Nusken 51, Hamano 76, Bronze

Roma: Lukasova, Heatley, Kuhl, Giugliano (Greggi 63), Dragoni (Corelli 77), Pilgrim (Pante 71), Oladipo, Pandini, Bergamaschi (Di Guglielmo 63), Thogersen, Babajide (Galli 63)
Unused subs: Baldi, Soggiu, Valdezate, Viens, Rieke, Ventriglia,

Referee: Ewa Augustyn