Chelsea retained the Women’s League Cup with a record-breaking final win over Bristol City at Vicarage Road.
Sam Kerr scored a hat-trick and Fran Kirby had a hand in all six goals.
England’s Kirby laid on an early tap-in for Kerr, and the pair combined again soon after for Kerr to double the lead.
Kirby pounced on City goalkeeper Sophie Baggaley’s poor clearance to finish and then added a fourth with a low strike before setting up Kerr’s hat-trick and Guro Reiten in the second half.
A perfect day for Chelsea, who are aiming for a clean sweep of trophies, was marred late on as Norwegian defender Maren Mjelde was carried off on a stretcher and went to hospital with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
Robins interim manager Matt Beard had overseen a rich vein of form with three wins and a draw in their previous five lifting them off the bottom of the Women’s Super League table for the first time since September.
However, Chelsea, who landed their eighth major trophy, highlighted the gulf in class to win their second League Cup by the biggest margin of victory in a final.
City had conceded 14 goals to the Blues without reply in two league meetings this season, and Kerr’s early double quickly opened old wounds before Baggaley had two moments to forget, gifting Kirby her first goal before allowing the England striker’s low shot to squirm past her.
With the result a formality and a Champions League quarter-final with Wolfsburg on the horizon, Emma Hayes made three changes at half-time, but Chelsea showed no signs of easing off as Kirby added two more assists for Kerr’s treble and Reiten.
The Robins enjoyed a good spell after Kerr and Kirby were also taken off to rest, but recently capped England forward Ebony Salmon’s powerful strike was denied by a fine save from Ann-Katrin Berger as their first-ever cup final appearance ended without consolation.
Chelsea boss Emma Hayes told BT Sport:
“We were unbelievable for 60 minutes, the pace, intensity and movement. It was a great team performance across the board. Fran Kirby and Sam Kerr were unbelievable.
“It was a performance of a team that were very confident in what they were doing and I really enjoyed it. We could have scored more than we did. We were exceptional going forward.
“Maren (Mjelde) is a huge person in our dressing room. She is the person everybody looks up to. I hope she is OK. I know it’s a bad one. I am devastated.”
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