Real Betis 1 Chelsea 4: Cole Palmer masterclass sees Blues come from behind to win Conference League final
ENZO MARESCA emerged triumphant from football’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.
Chelsea’s boss will enjoy winning the Conference League, his first trophy at the end of his first season in charge and making history.
But he now wants nothing to do with this tinpot competition ever again as he sets his and the club’s sights on much loftier ambitions in the Champions League next season.
It’s a notable achievement to become the first club to win all four existing European competitions as Chelsea have now done.
Maresca also believes that however minor this third-tier tournament is, he hopes it will ignite the fires for long term success within his youthful squad.
But in five years’ time it’s highly unlikely many people will remember the heady night in Poland when the youngest squad in the Premier League this season came of age by coming from behind to see off Real Betis.
The trophy itself will easily masquerade as a waste-paper bin in the manager’s office and time will move on for a club convinced it is on the way back to greatness as it should be after more than £1billion of investment in the squad.
Yet it almost wasn’t so. Maresca had to make drastic changes to his team and to the mentality in order to get over the line.
His young team was a bag of nerves in the first half and as such went behind inside ten minutes to a team comprised of veterans and cast offs, managed by a bloke exactly the same age as Maresca’s dad.
They were run ragged by the sublime skills of Isco, a former Real Madrid great who showed Chelsea what it is to stay cool and calm on a big night.
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They shot themselves in the foot with nervy, slack passing as they struggled to get to grips with the occasion and could have been more than the one goal down they were at half time.
But when you play with kids you can win things and they learn quickly.
Maresca pulled the plug on right back Malo Gusto at half time, the architect of destruction for the first goal and it brought certainty and surety.
He surgically removed Benoit Badiashile and Pedro Neto and Chelsea grew into the game.
To the extent that Cole Palmer, who had been taught a lesson in dribbling and poise by the elder statesman of Isco suddenly sprang to life with vigour and confidence instead of being an interested spectator.
Two goals in five minutes, the 65th and 70th, saw Chelsea come roaring back and both were teed up by Palmer from the right hand side.
The first was a delicately floated cross that found the head of midfielder Enzo Fernandez who nipped in ahead of defender Marc Bartra and glanced the ball into the back of the net.
The Argentinian World Cup winner has been at this club for more than two years and is part of the furniture now. Despite scoring he knew the nerves had been there for all to see and immediately called for calm among the delirious celebrations.
But he needn’t have worried because Palmer, who had mustered the only shot on target for Chelsea in a dreadful first half, was in full flow now.
A roll of a defender on the edge of the box and he dashed in a cross for Nicolas Jackson to divert the ball past ex-West Ham and Liverpool keeper Adrian.
It was a sweet moment for the striker who was drafted back in to the team to redeem himself after getting sent off in a crucial Premier League match at Newcastle earlier this month.
He’ll tell you he headed it but it came off his left breast but it counted and from then on it was Betis trying to stem the tide of a rampant Chelsea side suddenly believing in themselves.
Sub Jadon Sancho came on to make it 3-1 with seven to go before Moises Caicedo added a fourth for good measure on the stroke of 90.
Chelsea have now officially won it, or bought it all depending on your viewpoint. But their squad is priced at around £750 million, more than five times that of their opponents here.
Next season instead of Betis it will be Barcelona or Bayern Munich at the other end of the pitch which means it will be considerably harder
Not that they didn’t struggle when faced with the first decent team to confront them the entire time. It shows there is still a lot to do.
But goodbye to Shamrock Rovers, Noah of Armenia and Astana of Kazakhstan, the 15 game, 9,800 mile odyssey to win a competition Chelsea never wanted to be in in the first place has come to a successful conclusion.
Oh and good riddance.