Enzo Maresca-led Chelsea completed European football on Wednesday with a 4-1 win over Real Betis in the Europa Conference League final and the newly crowned Blues are now tasked with making a genuinely rare choice ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.
Abdessamad Ezzalzouli scored first after Isco found him with a neat pass in the ninth minute, while it took until after the hour mark for the Blues to respond. Squaring level in the 65th minute of play, Enzo Fernandez nodded home Cole Palmer’s teasing ball.
Minutes later, it was then Nicolas Jackson’s to turn in a ball from creator-in-chief, Palmer. Jadon Sancho then curled one into the top right-hand corner in the 82nd minute before midfielder Moises Caicedo put the icing on the cake with an added-time strike.
Watch the full highlights of Chelsea 4-1 Real Betis below:
Blues Face Rare Choice After 4-1 Betis Win
Maresca's side have now qualified for two European competitions
Chelsea’s second-half onslaught at the Stadion Miejski, Wrocław, meant that they became the first team in football history to ever win all three UEFA competitions – and in doing so, Maresca and his entourage now have an incredibly unusual decision to make.
As always, the winners of the Conference League automatically get a spot in the following Europa League. That’s all well and good – but the fact that Chelsea finished fourth in the 2024/25 Premier League season, after a final-day 1-0 win, complicates matters, as they have also qualified for the Champions League.
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They now have to decide what competition they’ll play in next season. Of course, there is very little doubt that the west Londoners – two-time winners of the Champions League – will opt for Europe’s primary competition over the Europa League.
As pointed out by Dale Johnson of ESPN, it is entirely Chelsea’s prerogative which competition they opt for. And that clause is in place to ensure cover a team from one of Europe’s lower-ranked leagues winning Europe’s third tier club competition.
“If they take up their domestic UCL place in the qualifying rounds they wouldn’t be guaranteed to play in the UEL, or even a European league phase at all depending on where they start qualifying. If they feel making the UCL league phase through qualifying is tough, they can opt to take the automatic place in the UEL league phase earned by winning the Conference League.”
Palmer, despite being slammed for his ‘rude’ post-match interview, was the man of the moment in Poland – and the Manchester-born playmaker is among the thousands of people who want to see Chelsea playing at Europe’s top table. As will his jubilant teammates.
The west Londoners have endured plenty of criticism throughout the 2024/25 campaign – and, following their recent 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest, Maresca hit back in scathing fashion, insisting that he had always retained full faith in his men. Per football.london, he said:
"I didn't have any doubt about the players. The doubt was from outside. We have had 'they are too young, they are not good enough. They were saying we were not able to win on this pitch. Unfortunately for them, they are all young. How do we say it in English: 'F*** off to all of them.''
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