By Samuel A. May 29, 2025
Chelsea Football Club fought back from a goal down to beat Real Betis and win the UEFA Conference League in their first participation in the competition. The Blues had been abysmal for the initial 45 minutes and were deservedly behind at the break after Isco, who ran the opening period, delivered a no look assist to set Abde Ezzalzouli up for a wonderful left footed finish to the bottom corner for the opener inside nine minutes.
Cole Palmer took up a freer role from the restart and then produced a player-of-the-match performance to inspire the Blues’ comeback.
An inviting dipping cross followed by Enzo Fernandez leveled Chelsea and brought them into the game. Barely five minutes later Palmer curled in another centre from the byline which Nicolas Jackson turned beyond Adrian with his upper arm. With the teams’ roles now reversed, Chelsea never dropped their intensity or domination and highlighted the work of their head coach as two substitutes linked up to seal victory late on.
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall intercepted a throw before driving forward and passing wide to Jadon Sancho, who cut in on his right foot and bent an unstoppable effort into the far corner.
Moises Caicedo added an injury-time fourth from the edge of the box to ensure Chelsea became the first club to win all three of Europe’s major continental trophies – and the first foreign side to deny a Spanish team in a European final since 2001.
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca said in his post match interview: “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, 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, they 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.”
Real Betis boss Manuel Pellegrini on the other hand blamed the loss on injuries. “What happened in the second half? We played a great first half; we scored a goal, we had a couple more clear chances, but in the second half we were affected by injuries. The fans have been incredible, during the game and even after. This is what hurts us most: not being able to give them this title. We have qualified for Europe next season but I have to say injuries today really caused us problems. Against a team as powerful as Chelsea, that’s always going to hurt you. How do the players feel? They are devastated. We couldn’t maintain what we did in the first half.”
Chelsea could now be left to choose between the Europa League and the Champions League after qualifying for both by winning the Conference League and finishing in the top 5.
