Latest news with #PolishEkstraklasa
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Can Chelsea reset? Legia Warsaw challenge awaits in Europa Conference League
Chelsea will travel to the Polish capital on Thursday night to face Legia Warsaw in the first leg of their Europa Conference League quarter-final, knowing that they have a golden opportunity. With no teams from Europe's top five leagues standing between them and the final, the Blues have a clear path to the final in Wroclaw if they can overcome their next two opponents. Advertisement Many people have treated this competition as a formality since the draw was made, but recent performances suggest Enzo Maresca's side cannot afford such a mindset. They cruised through the league phase with six wins from six and overcame FC Copenhagen without conceding in the last 16. However, Chelsea's rhythm has dipped in recent weeks, with just three goals scored across their last five matches. The goalless draw against Brentford last weekend underlined their current lack of cutting-edge. The last time they won away from home in any competition was in Copenhagen over a month ago, and their away league record in 2025 still reads zero wins. Advertisement Maresca remains calm and believes his side are still on track. 'We have been there all season,' he said in his pre-match press conference. 'Hopefully, we can be there at the end.' Legia will not be overawed by the occasion. They have lost just once at home since September and, despite sitting fifth in the table, are the highest scorers in the Polish Ekstraklasa, with 50 goals. A 5-0 win over Ruch Chorzow in the Polish Cup was followed by a gritty 2-1 league victory over Gornik Zabrze, suggesting they are peaking at the right time. This is not a side to be taken lightly, especially in front of a passionate home crowd. Maresca has prepared his players for the challenge. Advertisement 'We try to show them some of the environment in this stadium so they can adapt,' Maresca added. 'They are lucky to experience that kind of game.' There is no deficit to overturn, no urgent crisis to solve, but Chelsea must see this tie for what it is – a chance to reset, dominate and take one more step towards the trophy they are expected to win.
The Independent
18-04-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Enzo Maresca has no doubt he has backing of Chelsea's owners
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca insisted he feels the support of the club's owners as his side continue to limp towards the season's conclusion. Progression to the Conference League semi-finals on Thursday was overshadowed by boos that greeted the players at the end of their 2-1 quarter-final second-leg defeat to Legia Warsaw, with the team currently fifth in the Polish Ekstraklasa good value for their win at Stamford Bridge. The Blues will play Swedish side Djurgarden in the last four and remain favourites to lift the trophy in Wroclaw on May 28. But an alarming defeat bodes ominously for the team's – and the owners' – main objective of returning the club to the Champions League for the first time in three seasons. Last Sunday's 2-2 Premier League draw at home to Ipswich pushed Chelsea out of the top five but, ahead of Sunday's trip to Fulham, Maresca said he saw no reason to panic. 'We have spent almost all season in a Champions League spot,' he said. 'We are in a European semi-final. So why now we need to change something? I don't have any doubt about what we are doing and the way we are doing. 'For different reasons we had setbacks like (against Legia), but for me this makes us stronger for the future.' Asked whether he felt the owners' backing, he said: 'Absolutely yes, no doubt.' Maresca made the surprise decision to start Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson against Legia, who trailed 3-0 from the first leg in Poland. Neither player has scored since January, with Jackson having missed around two months with injury during that period, and the team have struggled without the goals of their most prolific attacking threats. Maresca was asked whether it would be possible to reach the Champions League without Palmer and Jackson's goals. 'No,' he replied. 'But I'm confident because they score goals, it's just at the moment they need to turn the moment. 'Cole scored 14 goals in 20 Premier League games. Nico was the same before the injury. He was out two months so probably physically he needs a bit more and it's the same for Cole.' Maresca also gave his backing to captain Reece James, who said after the Legia match that the team had not respected the competition in their approach. 'He's in charge of that, he's one of the captains,' said Maresca. 'Probably in part he was right, because the first (leg) result we tried to manage in the wrong way. He's right in what he said. 'If you remember, I complained (earlier in the season) a little bit in terms of (James') leadership but my target was this, to try to get more from him, to get more from him in terms of leadership. 'When you don't have a leader, at least you have to try to build some leader. In this moment Reece is doing well. We have two or three players that are making the effort help the rest.'
Telegraph
10-04-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Legia Warsaw vs Chelsea: Lineups and latest updates from Conference League
Match kicks off at 5.45pm Latest updates Richard Aikman live updates 5:21PM Here are the line-ups Chelsea The XI to face @LegiaWarszawa. 📋🔵 #CFC | #UECL — Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 10, 2025 Chelsea have made five changes to the side that drew 0-0 with Brentford at the weekend. Cole Palmer returns to the side while Filip Jorgensen dons the gloves and Tyrique George, Josh Acheampong and Benoît Badisahile come into the defence. Nkunku starts up front as he did on Sunday before coming off at half-time for Jackson. Legia Warsaw For You, for the Club, for Legia. We're playing for the win 🔥 #ItsTime #UECL — Legia Warsaw (@LegiaWarsawEN) April 10, 2025 5:14PM Legia's struggles Legia Warsaw finished seventh during the league phase and reached the last eight by beating Norwegian side Molde in the last round. They are not, however, pulling up any trees in the Polish Ekstraklasa, where they lie fifth. The match kicks off at 5.45pm and you can catch all the build up and team news right here. 5:12PM Winning run Not that Enzo Maresca is taking tonight's match lightly. Chelsea's head coach made a raft of changes last weekend, electing to rest Cole Palmer, Marc Cucurella, Levi Colwill, Pedro Neto and Nicolas Jackson for their goalless draw with Brentford. Perhaps he wants to set a record in this competition by winning every match – a feat they are on course to do having won all eight so far and scoring 29 goals in the process. Six of those goals have come from the competition's joint-top scorer Marc Guiu, but the Spaniard is out with a hamstring injury and so will most likely be replaced up top by Christopher Nkunku, who is just one goal behind Guiu with five Conference League goals. Also missing for the Blues are Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana so it will be interesting to see how Maresca lines his side up. 5:11PM Countdown to kick-off Welcome to this evening's live coverage of Chelsea's magical mystery tour of Europe as Enzo Maresca's side visit Legia Warsaw in the quarter-final first leg of the Uefa Conference League. It is a far cry from Porto 2021 or even Munich 2012 but those higher aspirations are for another day. Right now they have the chance to complete their European set by winning the one trophy that has so far eluded them – in it's three-year existence...
New York Times
09-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Chelsea winning the Conference League would give them a financial and footballing safety net
The final stretch of Chelsea's season is here and, in contrast to their extremely challenging Premier League run-in, the road to Wroclaw for the Conference League final on May 28 continues to look highly favourable. Chelsea's massive financial advantage over the rest of the Conference League field has been well documented, and it is readily translatable to the strength of quality on the pitch. Advertisement Quarter-final opponents Legia Warsaw lie fifth in the Polish Ekstraklasa this season and sit 71st in UEFA's club coefficient rankings. Overcoming them would set up a semi-final date with either Rapid Vienna (fifth in the Austrian league and 69th in UEFA's club rankings) or Djurgarden of Sweden (68th). Fiorentina are the only other club in the competition ranked as one of UEFA's top 40 clubs (36th), and Chelsea (ninth) cannot meet them until the final. Winning this competition would therefore occupy a strange place in the Chelsea psyche. Becoming the first club (again) to complete the set of major domestic and European trophies has real meaning to many supporters. Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly are eager to lift their first silverware since purchasing the club from Roman Abramovich three years ago, and it would also be an important milestone for head coach Enzo Maresca and his young squad. All that said, it is difficult to imagine much appetite inside or outside Chelsea for an open-top bus parade from Stamford Bridge to Eel Brook Common if Maresca's team go all the way, and anything less would be widely regarded as a significant embarrassment as well as a failure. Regardless of how it ends, Chelsea's maiden run in UEFA's third-tier competition will not move the needle financially, relative to their all-important pursuit of Champions League qualification, which will be decided no later than three days before the Conference League final when Maresca's team wrap up their 2024-25 Premier League campaign away at Nottingham Forest. Champions League football was worth around £80million ($102m) to Chelsea in 2021-22 and 2022-23; the financial rewards of the Conference League are paltry in comparison. 'If we take a look at West Ham, when they won it in 2022-23, they got €22million (£18.8million) in prize money,' football finance expert Kieran Maguire tells The Athletic. 'Plus they had the benefit of seven home games. They wouldn't have been able to charge full price because of the quality of the opposition, but they probably grossed €30m (£25.7m). Advertisement 'Then you factor in spending to improve the quality of the squad (to cope with more games). You've also got transportation costs, accommodation costs. You could also argue that it cost them as far as their league position was concerned (West Ham finished 14th in 2022-23), and that's worth £3m per place. 'Then the players would have had bonuses for winning the competition. So by the time you factor in all your costs, you're talking, in my view, low single millions of profit (at best).' Chelsea are not quite in the same position. Their relentlessly high transfer spend always accounts for regular European football to a degree that other Premier League clubs do not. Their squad has not been stressed by this Conference League run — Maresca was able to employ wholesale rotation for the league phase — and, at least to date, their domestic league position has not suffered as a result of progressing to the knockout rounds. But the most tangible benefit to Chelsea of winning the Conference League would be the automatic passage it carries into next season's Europa League. That will not matter if Maresca delivers the top-five finish in the Premier League that is almost certain to be enough to bring Champions League football back to Stamford Bridge in 2025-26, but it will be a valuable insurance policy if they end up missing out. Opta currently projects Chelsea as having a 43.4 per cent chance of finishing this season somewhere in the Premier League's top five, but their likeliest final league position is sixth (27.2 per cent chance). If they were to slip even further to seventh (19 per cent chance), it opens up the nightmare potential scenario of Aston Villa or Crystal Palace winning the FA Cup and bumping them back into the Conference League, as Manchester United did to them last season. Europa League participation in 2025-26 would not be a thrilling prospect either, but it would be a clear and important step up for Chelsea in financial terms. 'Manchester United grossed €32m (£27.4m) in 2022-23 and they were knocked out in the quarter-finals, so by the time you factor in the additional matches, the additional prize money, for winning it, you're likely to be somewhere in the region of €45m (£38.6m) to €50m (£42.8m) as a big Premier League club,' Maguire adds. Advertisement 'Plus you've got your home matches, so if you add six of those in, you're probably looking in the region of €60m (£51.4m). You've got additional operating costs, but the net benefit from a good year in the Europa League for a club with the status of Chelsea is around €25m (£21.4m) to €30m (£25.7m).' The significance of that increase in revenue is underlined by the last two years of Chelsea's published accounts, in which the controversial internal sales of the two hotels outside Stamford Bridge and Chelsea Women were required to offset huge operating losses and keep the club on the right side of the Premier League's profit and sustainability rules. A punishment for failing to stay within UEFA's financial limits — which do not allow such transactions to be factored into compliance calculations — is currently being discussed. That is more likely to be a fine than a sporting penalty, allowing Chelsea to embark on a new European adventure next season. Ownership and supporters would very much like it to be back in the Champions League, but lifting the Conference League in May would at least guarantee Europa League football and prevent them from being a giant among relative minnows again.
