Chelsea Women stepped up our preparations for the new campaign with a 4-1 win against Rangers.
The Blues went 1-0 down early on but a first-half brace from Pernille Harder and second-half goals from Bethany England and youngster Emma Thompson secured victory in our third pre-season friendly.
Despite Chelsea’s dominance in the opening 15 minutes, the hosts opened the scoring through Brogan Hay.
Less than a minute later and the Blues were back on level terms as Harder headed home a cross from Guro Reiten and Harder was on the scoresheet again 10 minutes later.
Chelsea were awarded a penalty after a handball in the box and the Denmark skipper stepped up to send the goalkeeper the wrong way and give the Blues a 2-1 lead.
England and Drew Spence came close to extending our advantage just before the hour mark but the Blues duo were both denied by the Rangers goalkeeper.
England wasn’t to be denied with just over 20 minutes remaining when she slotted home a low cross from Cuthbert to put the Blues 3-1 ahead.
Substitute Thompson made an immediate impact as she turned on the edge of the box and fired a low effort into the bottom corner to score a fourth for the Blues.
Chelsea will now prepare for our final pre-season fixture against Aston Villa at Kingsmeadow on Friday 27 August. Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased here.
Chelsea (3-4-3) Berger; Carter, Leupolz (Thompson 74), Wardlaw (Darey 81); Fox (Guyatt 74), Spence, Ji (Beever-Jones 74), Harder; Cuthbert, England, Reiten
Scorers Harder 18, 28 England 71 Thompson 81