Until the start of next season, the city will have to live with the memories of some of the biggest names in women\u2019s football blasting the ball into the back of the net.<\/p>\n
The dominance was clear from kickoff, with the London club controlling possession and running the Auckland defence ragged. <\/p>\n
Aggie Beever-Jones appeared to have overcome her jet lag from earlier in the week, opening the scoring after 11 minutes thanks to smooth link-up play with Alyssa Thompson in the right-hand side of the box. <\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s play was suffocating the Auckland defence, slowly pushing them further back into their own penalty area and opening up gaps, which allowed Beever-Jones to slot home her second after 13 minutes.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old completed her hat-trick 10 minutes later, this time thanks to a wicked corner from Katie McCabe that wasn\u2019t dealt with properly, falling straight to Beever-Jones\u2019 feet for a simple tap-in.<\/p>\n
The touring side didn\u2019t have everything their own way in the first half, with Peta Trimis, who usually plays for the Central Coast Mariners, providing a bright spark down the right-hand side and delivering some dangerous balls in towards her teammates. <\/p>\n
Chelsea changed their approach after Auckland started to gain some rhythm, playing more direct football and attacking down the left flank with Sandy Baltimore. <\/p>\n
The French player looked effortless on the ball and caused trouble for the defenders every time she attacked. <\/p>\n
The 26-year-old was rewarded for her efforts with a simple finish after another brilliant pass from Alyssa Thompson on the right side of the penalty box. <\/p>\n
Both sides started the second half with more ferocity as the play opened up, allowing the Invitational XI to move the ball up the pitch, but this also allowed gaps to appear in defence.<\/p>\n
Thompson proved to be the creative force for Chelsea again, cutting inside and firing a shot towards goal that was blocked, but quick thinking from substitute Giulia Dragoni led to her latching on to the rebound and passing it into the back of the net for Chelsea\u2019s fifth. <\/p>\n
Trimis caused the Chelsea defence more trouble in the second half, turning McCabe near her own byline, driving into the box and forcing the Londoners to scramble for a clearance. <\/p>\n
The pressure was unrelenting, even after a slew of changes for both teams, with Chelsea continuously probing the Auckland FC penalty area. <\/p>\n
This time, it was Maika Hamano who threw her head on to the end of a curling cross from their left wing thanks to Mayra Ramirez making a darting run and dragging a defender with her. <\/p>\n
The Auckland FC Women\u2019s Invitational XI showed fight until the final whistle, something the crowd appreciated as they roared every time the hosts moved the ball upfield and fans were unfortunate not to be rewarded with a goal from the locals. <\/p>\n
A lack of goals wasn\u2019t a problem in the game overall as Ramirez drilled the ball home for her side\u2019s seventh and was applauded by all 15,411 people in the stands. <\/p>\n
This was a perfect start to Chelsea\u2019s pre-season and if this is a sign of things to come, Europe\u2019s top sides should be put on notice. <\/p>\n
Chelsea FC Women 7 (Aggie Beever-Jones 11, 13, 23; Sandy Baltimore 26; Giulia Dragoni 56; Maika Hamano 65; Mayra Ramirez 87)<\/p>\n
Auckland FC Women\u2019s Invitational XI 0<\/p>\n
Halftime: 4-0<\/p>\n
Two weeks after Tottenham visited Auckland, it\u2019s now the turn of Chelsea FC Women to put on a show for the City of Sails. <\/p>\n
Auckland FC\u2019s women\u2019s team is expected to make its A-League debut next season, but this fixture gives fans a taste of what\u2019s to come with some of the competition\u2019s biggest names taking part. <\/p>\n
Former Football Fern Abby Erceg will lead the team at Eden Park with the help of coach Jenny Bindon, while Deven Jackson, who won the 2026 A-League Women\u2019s grand final with Melbourne City, and the Wellington Phoenix\u2019s Mackenzie Barry are expected to play important roles in the squad. <\/p>\n
Chelsea are at the start of their pre-season and are looking to improve on last season after finishing third in the Women\u2019s Super League and the League Cup being their only piece of silverware. <\/p>\n
Their biggest departure is Australia\u2019s Sam Kerr, but they have still made a splash in the transfer window by signing Katie McCabe after her contract at Arsenal expired. <\/p>\n
Coach Sonia Bompastor said the club is excited to be in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s the first time for the Chelsea women\u2019s team, really excited as I said, but also again, that\u2019s part of our pre-season preparation,\u201d Bompastor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have really important games to come and coming here is also the opportunity for the team to get to know each other well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have new players, new members of staff, so opportunity to continue to train at a really good level, but also to enjoy being in a different country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chelsea FC Women v Auckland FC Women\u2019s Invitational XI teams<\/p>\n
Chelsea: 1. Livia Peng, 2. Ellie Carpenter, 4. Naomi Girma, 6. Sjoeke Nusken, 11. Sandy Baltimore, 12. Alyssa Thompson, 15. Katie McCabe, 19. Wieke Kaptein, 26. Kadeisha Buchanan (c), 32. Lexi Potter, 33. Aggie Beever-Jones<\/p>\n
Substitutes: 5. Veerle Buurman, 7. Mayra Ramirez, 16. Giulia Dragoni, 17. Nelly Las, 22. Lucy Bronze, 23. Maika Hamano, 24. Hannah Hampton, 25. Lola Brown, 40. Katie Cox, 42. Chloe Sarwie<\/p>\n
Coach: Sonia Bompastor<\/p>\n
Auckland FC: 23. Lindsey Harris, 2. Mackenzie Barry, 3. Elizabeth Anton, 5. Abby Erceg (c), 7. Avaani Prakash, 8. Deven Jackson, 10. Momo Hayashi, 11. Olivia Chance, 13. Aimee Medwin, 17. Maggie Jenkins, 22. Peta Trimis,<\/p>\n
Substitutes: 1. Zoe Doughty, 4. Charlotte Lancaster, 6. Saskia Vosper, 9. Ruby Nathan, 12. Alaina Granger, 14. Nya Baccelli, 15. Talisha Geen, 16. Claire Winter, 18. Aniela Jensen, 19. Olivia Ingham, 20. Maddie Iro, 21. Piper O\u2019Neill, 24. Laura Bennett<\/p>\n
Coach: Jenny Bindon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until the start of next season, the city will have to live with the memories of some of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1975,51,33339,39307,33400,8142,26845,111,139,69,8143,213,223,2248],"class_list":["post-562554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-blues","tag-chelsea","tag-dominate","tag-eden","tag-fc","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-park","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}