Our Men’s Team Won The UEFA Conference League Title!

Image credits: Getty

On 19th May 2024, on the 12th anniversary day of our 1st UCL triumph, we played the final game week of the EPL season and won 2-1 against AFC Bournemouth. This helped us finish 6th in the table and qualify for the 2024-25 UEFA Conference League. Remember, right from that day onwards, Chelsea FC were the overwhelming favourites to win the Conference League. Why? As per the “UEFA 5-year Club Ranking 2024”, here’s the Club coefficient of the top 6 teams playing in this season’s Conference League:

1.       Chelsea FC: 96 points, Rank 10.

2.       FC Copenhagen: 51.5 points, Rank 37.

3.       KAA Gent: 45 points, Rank 46.

4.       Fiorentina: 42 points, Rank 49.

5.       LASK: 37 points, Rank 51.

6.       Real Betis: 33 points, Rank 57.

As you can see, how big is the difference between Chelsea and other clubs, not just in points and rank, but also in the quality of players, history, big game experience, etc. Look at the difference between us and our final opponents, Real Betis! Hence, since the last 1 year, everyone expected us to win the title, including our fans too. The players played the whole tournament in that way. We topped the table with 6 wins out of 6, scoring 26 and letting in only 5 goals. Overall, out of 14 matches before the final one, we won 12 and lost just 2.

Final Prelude

After the 2nd leg of the semi-final on 8 May, our opponents were confirmed to be Real Betis. Coached by Manuel Pellegrini, former EPL title winner with Manchester City and ‘Professional Father’ of Enzo Maresca, in his own words. In the run-up to the final, the 2 teams had contrasting experiences. In the league, Chelsea lost 1 and won 4 of their last 5 matches, while Betis won 1, lost 1, and drew 3. The last match of Chelsea before the final on 28th May, was on 25 May, vs Nottingham Forest, a direct rival for next season’s UCL place, thus, an important (like an eliminator/final) match, which we won. On the contrary, Real Betis played their last match on 23 May, a dead rubber in La Liga, as they had already secured Europa League qualification by being 6th in the table. Thus, our opponent had 2 extra days to prepare for the Conference final.

Time for the Final

On the matchday, when the Chelsea 11 were announced, many were surprised. Many fans in the CISC Navi Mumbai WhatsApp group showed unhappiness. Fans lamented the inclusion of Badiashile instead of Colwill, Gusto instead of Recee James, and Madueke on the wrong wing; maybe Sancho could have started? As the match started, these changes were proved wrong by the above players themselves with their lacklustre gameplay and a purposefully planned gameplay by Real Betis players, esp. the veteran magician, Isco. He gave a no-look assist to Ezzalzouli, who scored in the 9th minute to make it 1-0.

Chelsea was fortunate to not concede more in the remaining 1st half. Many fans were asking for substitutions, esp. for Malo Gusto, the worst player in the 45 minutes. Nervousness had set in, many were wondering, will another trophy drought get over this season? This was the first big final of these young Chelsea kids, most of whom were below the age of 25. They certainly had the talent, but the temperament, hunger, and ability to handle pressure and perform under it? Real Betis have never won any European trophy since they were founded in 1907. Their fans in the stadium were loud, celebrating, their perfect 12th, 13th, 14th,… man, and our fans were quiet.

The Magical 2nd Half Begins

Straightaway, Maresca subbed out Gusto for club captain Recce James, gave a free role to Palmer, and made some other tactical adjustments based on the 1st half. Real Betis were forced into substituting their defender Ricardo Rodriguez for Romain Perraud because of an injury. All this transformed the game as Chelsea grew into the contest and started to control the ball more. Palmer started playing like the special player he was as he bossed the midfield. In the 61st minute, we brought in Sancho for Neto and Colwill for Badiashile. Now it was time for the world to see again, who really Cole Palmer🥶 was! His dipping cross from the half-space landed inch perfect for Enzo Fernandez to head past Adrian in the 65th minute. This sparked jubilant celebrations and Chelsea fans in the stadium, in the CISC NM group and in the rest of the world came to life, and started believing!

We were now in firm possession of the ball and control of the game as Real Betis players were tiring as they were left chasing the ball. They were out of ideas, and Isco looked like a pale shadow of his 1st half performance, whereas Chelsea’s quality and talent were shining. In the 70th minute, again with his trickery and mastery, Palmer lofted the ball from the right side of the box. The ball met the left shoulder of Jackson and he skilfully guided it into the net completing a remarkable comeback. Here in the WhatsApp group, we had gone mad! After cursing some players in the first half, we found ourselves praising them!

Image Credits: skysports

More Goals

Most of us thought, alright now it’s time to sit back and park the bus. But our players had other ideas. In the 80th minute, Kieran Dewsbury-Hall was brought on for Jackson and just in 3 minutes, he made an impact. KDH intercepted a throw near their box, drove forward and passed wide to Sancho who cut in on his right foot and bent a spectacular effort into the top far corner. We now lead 3-1! Oh, the Real Betis fans and players couldn’t believe what was happening!

The game entered into extra time, and the party mode🥳 of Chelsea fans all around the world began, but wait, the icing on the cake was coming up. Our best player of the season, Moises Caicedo decided to get on the scoresheet as he fired a rocket into the top right corner from the edge of the box in the 91st minute. With this goal, the chances of a magical Real Betis comeback went down to 0% as their fans were spotted crying. As the referee, Irfan blew the final whistle, each and every Blues celebrated wildly🕺.

Image Credits: skysports

History Made!

It was 3 am in Mumbai, but every Chelsea fan felt alive as morning! Against all odds (including the biased commentators too), these young kids made a spirited comeback from 1-0 down until the 64th minute to win the UEFA Conference League 4-1🏆. This way, Chelsea FC became the 1st ever club to win all 5 UEFA trophies (UCL, Europa, Conference, Cup Winners Cup, UEFA Super Cup), in addition to the Club World Cup. We broke our trophy drought of 3+ years (UCL in May 2021 or Club World Cup in Dec 2021), and clinched the 1st trophy of the new ownership (Boehly-Clearlake) era! Cole Palmer was rightfully named Man of the Final match🙌. Some excerpts of our coach’s interview after the final:

Enzo Maresca told TNT Sports: "In the first half, we approached the game in the wrong way. I expected it a little bit because for two days the happiness was a little bit too much after Nottingham Forest.

"You go all season waiting. We struggled a little bit with that, but the second half was much better.

"The message after Forest was that if we wanted to be an important team, what we've done is done and we have to win a final now.

"That was the message, but there's the happiness, the tiredness. We played on Sunday for a big target, [Betis] played on Friday for nothing. They had 48 hours extra.

"I expected it a little bit, but in the second half we were much better and we were attacking in behind, which we didn't do before half-time."

"Hopefully, this can be a starting point and we can begin to create something important"🔥.

Concluding

The efforts of spending over £1bn on new signings over the past 3 seasons and changing more than 4 coaches finally bore fruit. Many had written off these kids, including certain “Billion-pound bottle jobs”, but the players finally proved who they were, and what kind of club exactly Chelsea FC💙 is. By winning this trophy and securing 4th place in the table (best in 3 seasons), returning to UCL after 3 seasons, this season will be termed as a success. Although the season isn’t over yet, in a few days, the champion players fly to the USA for the revamped Club World Cup with high levels of confidence and expectations😎.