After the high of Sunday’s emotional catharsis, we were served a cold dose of harsh reality in tonight’s UEFA Conference League final, as a much more experienced Real Betis side swatted us aside with relative ease.
At least that was the introduction I wrote at half time.
It turns out the cold dose of harsh reality was actually a COLD dose of harsh reality, served up by COLD Palmer on this cool night in Wroclaw, as he swatted aside Betis in the second half.
A goal conceded inside the first ten minutes, stemming purely from a silly turnover at the back, looked to have set the La Liga side on their way, and they really could’ve added a couple more to that early advantage before the half-time whistle. Only some rather wasteful finishing and a couple excellent saves from Filip Jorgensen kept the scoreline manageable at the break.
Chelsea offered very little threat going forward in the first 45, keeping plenty of the ball but lacking incisiveness in all areas of the final third. Palmer had an early sight at goal, but we had just 4 shots (1 on target) to show for a nearly 70-30 edge in possession.
We’ve seen Chelsea follow disappointing first halves with much improved second halves on multiple occasions this season, and delightfully that was the case today as well. It may not have been immediate, but as Betis shrank further and further back, we eventually built up a head of steam around the hour-mark. Palmer then took over, setting up Enzo Fernandez then Nicolas Jackson for slam dunks: Enzo with his head, Nico with his chest, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in the space of less than ten minutes.
Chelsea could’ve and should’ve made it 3-1 on 75 minutes, with Jackson having the freedom of the entire Betis half of the pitch to run at goal on a counter, but a horrible touch let him down (and got him injured as well).
Thankfully, that didn’t matter in the end, with Jadon Sancho scoring a wonderful effort to seal the deal in the 83rd minute, and Moises Caicedo getting the party started a few minutes early with our fourth in the 91st minute.
Make room for a new trophy!
Carefree.
* Plenty of rotation in the back; no rotation up front other than Jackson coming back in since he’s not suspended in Europe
* Reecey on at the half for Gusto, who had a shocker of a half: probably should’ve been subbed on 20 minutes if not earlier
* Sancho and Colwill on at the hour-mark; KDH for the final ten minutes. KDH sets up Sancho for the third.
* Congrats to the referee for booking Palmer for kicking the ball out to get Jackson some treatment
* Guiu with a new serious trim on for the final few minutes for Palmer.
* Chelsea the first team to win all major European competitions, including this thing which has been in existence for only four years
* Next up: Club World Cup in three weeks; see y’all in Atlanta on June 16!
* KTBFFH
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