Chelsea 4-1 Real Betis: Blues Become First Team In History To Win All Three UEFA Competitions
Chelsea’s UEFA Conference League adventure concluded on May 28th, and it did so with an expected tournament victory against Real Betis in Wroclaw. Usually more accustomed to featuring in the Champions League, winning the tournament as recently as four years ago, the Blues slipped into Europe’s tertiary competition this season. But as the old saying goes, you can only beat who’s in front of you.
Throughout the run to the final, the London outfit regularly played their C Team, with very few senior players starting. As the action progressed, more and more senior players were integrated into the starting lineup. By the time the final rolled around, the Blues were at full strength, even successfully navigating a minor striker issue that they had suffered from in the weeks prior.
Even so, they didn’t have everything their own way in the Polish showpiece.
Chelsea Come From Behind to Defeat Real Betis
The clash against Real Betis was perhaps Chelsea’s first difficult game of their entire Conference League run, and it came in the final. For once, the Blues were matched up with an opponent somewhat close to theirs in terms of quality, although the Spaniards do still lag somewhat behind. But it looked as though the step up in competition caught the English side by surprise.
Throughout the entirety of the first half, it was Betis who were on top. They took a deserved lead after just nine minutes through Abde Ezzalzouli’s well-taken left-footed finish, and they could have had more. However, after the break, it was one-way traffic.
Chelsea pushed for an equalizer throughout the second stanza, and although it took a while to come, in the 65th minute, it finally did. Man of the match Cole Palmer’s delicious cross was nodded home by captain Enzo Fernandez, and from there, they never looked back. Palmer was the architect once again, five minutes later, twisting and turning before crossing for Nicholas Jackson to nod home. Jadon Sancho then added a brilliant third in the 83rd minute, before Moises Caicedo completed the victory in injury time.
The result makes the English outfit the first team in history to win all three of UEFA’s elite competitions. It also made them the first team in 24 years to beat a Spanish outfit in a major European final, with Bayern Munich and Liverpool beating Valencia and Alaves respectively in the Champions League and UEFA Cup finals back in 2001. That snapped a Spanish winning streak of 23 straight final victories, and now the Londoners can look to the future.
Upcoming Club World Cup
There will be no rest for the Blues as they now jet off to the United States to contest the FIFA Club World Cup, a tournament that online sports betting sites make them a contender to win. The latest odds from Bovada’s casino, sports betting, and poker site give Enzo Maresca’s men an 11/1 shot to lift the trophy at MetLife Stadium on July 13th, narrowly behind tournament frontrunners Real Madrid and Manchester City.
The Stamford Bridge side certainly heads across the pond full of confidence. Their young squad successfully managed to secure a return to the UEFA Champions League with a final-day victory against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Now, they have added a European trophy to their already overflowing trophy cabinet. If they could somehow find a way to win the Club World Cup and secure the big prize that victory would bring with it, the 2024/25 season could well go down as one of their greatest ever.
European Pedigree
This year’s Conference League triumph marks Chelsea’s seventh major European honor. Compare that to their vanquished opponents Real Betis, who were competing in their first-ever continental final, and it’s clear to see why the English outfit were the favorites for victory.
Before the Roman Abramovich era, the club’s sole European honors were Cup Winners’ Cup triumphs in 1971 and 1998. However, the Russian oligarch’s takeover of the club ushered in a golden era. They reached a first-ever UEFA Champions League final in 2008, but unfortunately, that ended in defeat to their compatriots, Manchester United. They wouldn’t lose another.
The Blues made it to the showpiece again in 2012, and this time, they would emerge with the trophy by beating Bayern Munich in their own Allianz Arena home despite being huge underdogs. The following year, Rafa Benitez led the club to a Europa League victory against Benfica in Amsterdam. In 2019, they would win that trophy again with an Eden Hazard-inspired 4-1 demolition of Arsenal in Baku.
In 2021, Chelsea won the Champions League for the second time. Much like the Europa League final of two years prior, they would once again down English opposition, this time Pep Guardiola’s well-fancied Manchester City. Four years on, and they have another European crown to their name. Could they add a global one to their historic honors board in a few weeks’ time?
