Chelsea’s status as London’s prime Euro trophy hunters remain inarguable. Winning the Conference League would add to a set of two European Cups, two Europa Leagues, having twice been winners of the old Cup Winners’ Cup.
If Uefa’s minor competition is not meant for global super-clubs, more clubs likeDjurgården, swept aside easily over two legs, Blues fans can look forward to an eighth European final, having won six of seven. It is a haul Arsenal fans licking their wounds from Paris can only dream of.
Progress to Wroclaw’s final came after a night without tension but full of atmosphere, though that mostly came from visiting fans from Sweden. Expectation can be a passion killer and the Conference League is in a competition Chelsea have rather idled through, full of quiet Thursday nights. The Swedish contingent lit up the night with noise and fervour. They have made the most of the Conference League experience.
For Enzo Maresca, failure to lift the trophy would still register as an abject failure and count against any designs on lasting longer than a season. His bosses have designs on playing on rather grander stages but at least the Italian moved a step closer to one of the season’s objectives.
With Newcastle to face at the weekend and Manchester United next Friday in the chase for next season’s Champions League, club priorities were made bare by Maresca’s selection, ten changes from the teamthat beat Liverpoolon Sunday. A three-goal margin was clearly felt to be enough. A first start for Reggie Walsh, 16 and within his GCSE study period, with a name you might associate with a south London gangster of days gone by. Walsh is the youngest player to start a European match for the club. Ahead of kick-off, captain Reece James hugged his young teammate, offering fatherly advice.
Others were embracing a personally huge occasion. Djurgården’s away contingent, in the corner of the Shed End, were lively, determined to show off ultra credentials at a stadium once one of the cathedrals of terrace culture. The modern Stamford Bridge, with its pre-match tunnel club, hardly resembles the Football Factory the visitors might expect from their DVD collection. Their noise, brandished scarves and firework smoke filled the otherwise rather still west London air and even got the home fans in the Shed singing.
Could their heroes land an early blow to strike tension into the tie? When August Priske won the ball on the right of the box and laid up Tokmac Nguen, it momentarily felt possible, only for the Norwegian to balloon his effort. The excitement around that attack made it clear DF fans were not just restricted to the away corner but in fact dotted around the Bridge, including in corporate sections, some of whom were taking Chelsea’s name in vain. It was clear many tickets had landed in the wrong – if willing – hands.
Walsh’s first contribution was to play his part in a couple of sweeping moves, as he played off lone striker Tyrique George, with Jadon Sancho playing off the left as a mark of his fading cachet. Marc Cucurella, with Malo Gusto, one of two first-choice players, was strolling around in midfield, there partnering James.
Any route back into the tie would have to come via a breakaway, as Chelsea dominated first-half play, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and George both testing Jacob Rinne in DF’s goal. Eventually, after George’s turn and pass, Dewsbury-Hall was free to guide the ball home and all but kill off the tie.
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The second half resumed with more Swedish noise. The willing running of George was shifted at half-time to the left flank as Cucurella was withdrawn, his mission completed, and Shumaira Mheuka was brought on to the lead the line. The 17-year-old from Birmingham, once of Brighton, was now playing off Walsh, 16.
When Miro Tenho forced a save from Filip Jörgensen the DF pockets grew louder in their excitement, even when an offside flag was waved. Even a consolation goal would surely have blown the roof off but the team estimated to be be worth 44 times its opposition was defending tightly enough. The majority of the entertainment value remained in the stands with the home fans getting involved too. This was, after all, a European semi-final.
After Dewsbury-Hall blew a chance to score his second and with 20 minutes to play, James was removed for Trevoh Chalobah, and in place of Sancho, on came Genesis Antwi, the 17-year-old facing opposition from his Stockholm birthplace.
Maresca’s trust in such flowering youth suggests bright days ahead for the Chelsea project – or pure profit, depending on the business model – with the final’s date in Poland among them.