New Chelsea era has trophy springboard as Cole Palmer turns up with magic in Conference League final

Yahoo

28-05-2025

Okay, so this was not exactly Munich or Porto. It was not even Amsterdam or Baku.
But May 28 and Wroclaw will go down as an important date and place in the story of this new Chelsea, remembered for the first silverware of the post-Roman Abramovich era and the first, too, for Enzo Maresca and his young team.
If Chelsea's goalscorers on those nights were their great heroes then here it was their provider and talisman. With Real Betis holding a deserved 1-0 lead, Cole Palmer conjured two wonderful assists in the space of five minutes, for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson, to flip the final on its head.
Betis were broken and the late goals flowed, from Jadon Sancho off the bench and Moises Caicedo through midfield. A 4-1 scoreline was harsh on the Spaniards, playing in their first ever European final, but fitting of the way Chelsea have dominated this competition from day one.
Sure, it is only the Conference League, but Chelsea are now the first club to win four major European trophies. The claim to have 'won it all' rings true once more.
The hope is that this will be a gateway triumph, one that starts the slide back towards a habit that had been involuntarily kicked and the winning addiction that was this club's hallmark for two decades. Who knows, with a Club World Cup to come in a fortnight's time, the winning might not be done just yet.
From long-range, this fixture had looked less like a final with two possible outcomes and more like a jubilee, a celebration pre-destined to happen so long as the monarch stayed upright on the throne. Chelsea felt in possession of the trophy long before Reece James held it aloft.
The reality on the night, though, was quite different. In the first-half, Maresca's men turned up but did little more, stunned by a Betis side whose desire and desperation bridged the gaps in European pedigree and financial might between the sides.
Chelsea had waltzed to this showpiece, scoring 41 goals in 14 matches since qualifying, sharing the load between 36 different players and never once looking in danger of going out. The most arduous part of the journey had been 17,500 miles of travel, including a winter excursion to Kazakhstan.
Here, they were too slow to recognise the uptick. This was not FC Noah or Shamrock Rovers, both hammered in the group stage, nor the 11th best team in Sweden, Djurgarden, who had put up no resistance whatsoever in the last-four.
This was a Betis side who have just finished sixth in LaLiga, managed by a Premier League-winning coach in Manuel Pellegrini and furnished with players of experience and class. The opening goal was scored by a forward once of Barcelona and made brilliantly by a playmaker who won the Champions League five times with Real Madrid.
Abde Ezzalzouli's finish was smart, but Isco's reverse pass sublime. Maresca knew all about the 33-year-old's talent, having played with the then emerging young Spaniard at Malaga. His players really should have, as well.
There were lessons for the manager, too, though, chiefly that European finals are no time to be worrying about workload management. The Italian got his biggest selection call wrong, leaving James out of the side and watching his deputy, Malo Gusto, torn apart.
At fault for the opening goal, the Frenchman was terrorised by Ezzalzouli and dragged at half-time. He was fortunate to make it that far.
But then credit Maresca, too, for his substitutions. James and Levi Colwill brought presence and calm, before Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall created the clincher for Sancho, the latter's fine finish a potential farewell.
Palmer, though, was the difference. His cross onto the head of Fernandez from an unpromising angle for the equaliser was perfect. His turn and delivery for Jackson was so good that it resulted in a goal even with the striker fluffing his headed finish and scoring off his chest. He tried, but quite literally couldn't miss.
It has not been an easy second half of the season for Palmer, whose numbers through the autumn always looked unsustainable but have dropped off more than anyone could have predicted.
On the big occasion, though, the 23-year-old turned up, as, eventually, did Chelsea at large. That is a good habit to get into - and so, too, is lifting cups.