Real Betis fans are up for it in Wroclaw.
Real Betis fans are up for it in Wroclaw. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA
The four-year-old Uefa Conference League may not have the cachet of the Europa League, never mind the star-spangled glamour and high-alpha-status of the Champions League. But it still counts for something. Try talking it down to Roma, whose 2022 victory was the Italian giants’ first in Europe for 61 years. Try dismissing it to anyone involved with West Ham United, whose 2023 win marked their first trophy of any sort since 1980. Try speaking ill of it to Olympiacos, whose triumph last year was a continental first for both club and country. Try telling Fiorentina, twice losing finalists and losing semi-finalists this year, that their tears, aching and longing mean nothing.
Chelsea surely won’t be looking down their noses at it this evening. Their game last weekend at Nottingham Forest, in which victory secured their place in next year’s Champions League, may have been more important in terms of pounds and pence, as well as pride for a club more used to a place at the top table. But football’s about bugger all if that means more than winning an actual pot, and here’s a chance for some shiny silverware at the end of an occasionally fraught season. Plus a win would make them the first club to have won all five major Uefa titles. The chance to complete the set might not come around again too soon.
Real Betis meanwhile are looking to win their first-ever European trophy in their first-ever European final. Given their arch city rivals Sevilla are the greatest club in Europa League history, that’s a gap on their roll of honour they’ll be desperate to fill. So this counts for something all right; both teams have plenty on the line this evening. Kick-off at the Stadion Wrocław in Poland is at 9pm local time, 8pm BST. It’s on!