Ellie Carpenter's Chelsea have overcome an early scare to put themselves in a commanding position to reach the UEFA Women's Champions League group stage.
Carpenter, a two-time winner of the competition with Lyon, set up two goals in a 5-2 third qualifying round first-leg win over Real Sociedad for the London club.
That leaves Carpenter well placed to join Manchester City's Mary Fowler and Arsenal trio Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross, whose sides enjoyed direct entry to the group stage after finishing in the Women's Super League top-two places.
However, fellow Matildas Hayley Raso and Jessica Rankin are less likely to make it after their Eintracht Frankfurt team was held 1-1 at home to Paris St Germain. Both began on the bench with Raso coming on after 66 minutes.
Chelsea's Spanish visitors had stunned them with a seventh-minute opener at Kingsmeadow, but the hosts' superior quality told with $A1.6m summer signing Melvine Malard scoring twice on her debut.
The French international's second came from a pinpoint cross by Carpenter, who also provided the assist for Chelsea's fourth goal, scored by England's Lauren James, with some fine build-up play.
The second legs are on September 2 (local time).
Matildas Teagan Micah (Lyon) and Wini Heatley (Roma) are also pre-qualified into the group-stage draw which will be made on September 4.
Australian Associated Press
