Chelsea 1 Legia Warsaw 2 (4-2 agg) – Semi-finals secured but boos as Maresca's side lose

New York Times

17-04-2025

Chelsea's bid to win the Conference League remains on track but their collective ego suffered a blow as they were beaten at home by Legia Warsaw.
Already leading 3-0 on aggregate following last week's quarter-final first leg in Poland, Enzo Maresca's side will play in next month's semi-finals but Tomas Pekhart's penalty and a header from Steve Kapuadi either side of a goal from Marc Cucurella secured a famous European win for Legia.
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Yet Chelsea's European campaign will continue, with Swedish side Djurgarden now standing between them and a place in the Conference League final in Wroclaw, Poland, on May 28.
Simon Johnson and Dan Sheldon break down the main talking points from a downbeat night at Stamford Bridge.
If Maresca hoped to improve his relationship with Chelsea fans, then this fixture did not help his cause.
Losing their first home game in the Conference League proper has to be considered an embarrassment, even if Chelsea booked their place in the semi-finals courtesy of a 3-0 victory secured in Poland last week.
Maresca made a strong defence of his first season in charge during his pre-match press conference, insisting progress has been made and urging Chelsea followers to 'trust' him.
Legia showed they were limited opposition in the first leg last week and, despite that, Maresca picked a strong side.
Instead of killing the tie off, Chelsea played with arrogance, as if they felt the tie was already won and they could just go through the motions.
Lots of academy talent, including Tyrique George, who scored his first senior goal for the club last week, was named on the bench. You suspect that some of the club's youngsters would have put more effort in than the more established players.
George showed exactly that, causing far more of a threat in the second half than Nicolas Jackson managed. But for a narrow offside against Noni Madueke, he would have scored the equaliser and doubled his tally for the Blues.
Chelsea fans let their feelings be known. There was one period of play in the first half when the men in blue laboured in possession and were greeted with a cacophony of jeers. There were other signs of unrest from the stands, although the home ends were simply stunned into silence when Legia scored in each half.
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Fewer than 30,000 fans showed up. Even taking into account there was more segregation next to the Legia supporters in the away end than normal, it looked like Chelsea's fanbase voted with their feet and many opted not to come. This was the club's lowest attendance at Stamford Bridge this season and the full-time whistle was met with boos.
Maresca clearly has a tough task on his hands to galvanise the crowd and get them back onside over the coming weeks.
Simon Johnson
Chelsea had a comfortable enough lead heading into this evening's game to not be overly concerned about a dramatic Legia comeback.
It turned out the 3-0 lead from the first leg was exactly what they needed as the Polish visitors fought their way back into the tie, much to the bemusement of Chelsea's supporters, who at one stage jeered their side's sluggish efforts in the first half.
A Filip Jorgensen error led to a penalty for the visitors, which was scored — Jorgensen should have saved it — by Pekhart, with captain Kapuadi adding Legia's second.
Chelsea may have had 70 per cent of possession and several attacking players on the pitch, including Jackson, Cole Palmer and Jadon Sancho, but it was Cucurella who proved to be their bright spark again.
The left-back, who entered the match as the club's top scorer in 2025, netted his sixth goal since December 15.
Although it is great for Cucurella to be scoring with regularity, it must be a cause of concern for Maresca that Chelsea are becoming reliant on the Spaniard's goals, even though they have an array of attacking talent at their disposal.
Had it not been for VAR spotting an offside, Cucurella would have finished the game with two goals to his name.
The 26-year-old, assisted by Sancho in the 33rd minute, created some space for himself inside the six-yard area, leaving a simple tap-in from close range. In the timeframe that Cucurella has scored six goals, Palmer, for example, has managed half of that number.
Dan Sheldon
There was real surprise when the Chelsea team news was released 75 minutes before kick-off, and the first XI contained the names of Palmer and Jackson.
Given Chelsea secured a 3-0 lead in the away leg, it seemed a rather bizarre decision to risk two of Chelsea's most important players, especially ahead of a must-win Premier League game at Fulham on Sunday.
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Maresca must have thought it was a great opportunity for both players to rediscover their confidence in front of goal. Palmer last found the net three months ago, against Bournemouth on January 14, his barren streak stretching over 14 fixtures.
Due to Jackson suffering a hamstring injury in February, he has had an even longer wait, having last scored against Brentford on December 15 (11 fixtures without a goal).
Palmer had a glorious opportunity within two minutes to end his frustration, but he looked a shadow of the player that used to beat keepers for fun as he hit a poor shot well wide of the near post, having had lots of space to run into.
Shortly afterwards, Palmer attempted to head in on the rebound after Christopher Nkunku's shot was saved, but 'keeper Vladan Kovacevic recovered to stop it on the line.
At least Palmer caused a threat in the first half. Jackson looked lethargic, so much so that on the half-hour mark, he took far too much time to run onto a ball played down the channel and failed to even get a touch as Kapuadi comfortably got there first.
It may have been part of the plan anyway, but it was not the greatest shock to see Jackson replaced at half-time by George.
Palmer lasted just another 12 minutes after the interval before being substituted and was unable to make a positive impact.
It just made Maresca's choice to play them all the more bizarre because neither of them got the boost they needed and have also not benefited from rest ahead of the west London derby either.
Simon Johnson
There was plenty of talk in the build-up about the potential for Legia's supporters to cause trouble outside Stamford Bridge before the game kicked off, but a slick operation led to more than 1,000 supporters entering the stadium long before 8pm.
A significant police presence outside the ground, with multiple vans, riot police, horses and sniffer dogs making their presence felt. There was even a police helicopter in the air, along with a drone, filming from above in case any trouble materialised.
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Reports of a stabbing were quickly dismissed by London's Metropolitan Police, replying to a report on social media to say the roadblock was 'just routine crowd control' and that there have been 'no reports of a stabbing', also noting how the post will 'cause unnecessary alarm for the many fans' in attendance.
During the first half, Legia's supporters, who were being watched closely by riot police inside Stamford Bridge, decided to take their tops off as they spurred their team on.
Despite the searches taking place outside the away entrance, though, Legia's fans still managed to enter the ground with flares, which they set off in the second half, meaning yet another UEFA fine will be heading their way.
Legia Warsaw's supporters have set off flares in the away end at Stamford Bridge. Another UEFA fine coming their way. #CFC @TheAthleticFC pic.twitter.com/fUkBHdVJ6f
— Dan Sheldon (@Dan_Sheldon_) April 17, 2025
Dan Sheldon
'First of all, we are for sure not happy with the defeat. We probably tried to manage the result, rotation with the players and (to) avoid injury.
'We have an important game on Sunday (against Fulham). We are in the semi-final, but we were trying to manage from the first leg with the result.
'It's a learning process because of the amount of games we have had this season. You have to play every three days and decide when to rotate players. It's a learning process for me. We have eight games to go, and they are all finals for us. Hopefully we can win on Sunday and give (ourselves) a big boost.'
Sunday, April 20: Fulham (Away), Premier League, 2pm UK, 9am ET