Christy Ucheibe got sent off in Wednesday’s Uefa Women’s Champions League first leg, Round of 32 encounter as 10-woman SL Benfica suffered a 5-0 loss at home to Chelsea.
The Nigerian midfielder was first cautioned in the 31st minute for a foul on Fran Kirby before receiving a second yellow card for a bookable offence against Erin Cuthbert in the 74th minute.
Having squeezed past POAK and Anderlecht to the Round of 32, the Portuguese champions hosted the English giants at the Benfica Stadium with the ambition of boosting their next round chances.
The hosts made a false start in the encounter when Fran Kirby opened the scoring for the visitors after just two minutes.
In the 29th minute, Guro Reiten set up Millie Bright to double the lead for Chelsea before Reiten bagged her brace of assists, teeing up Kirby four minutes later to extend their lead to three.
A minute from the half time break, Reiten made it a third assist, providing Pernille Harder with a pass to net the fourth.
Nine minutes after the restart, Reiten secured her quadruple of assists in laying up Bethany England for the fifth to hand the visitors a massive first-leg lead going into the reverse fixture in London.
Besides Ucheibe, Cape Verde’s Jolina Amani was an unused substitute for Benfica against Chelsea as the absence of the former Nigeria youngster will be a huge blow for the Portuguese giants.
Despite the heavy defeat at home, Luis Andrade’s team is expected to face Chelsea in the second leg of the Round of 32 at Kingsmeadow stadium on December 16.
