Chelsea staged a dominant second-half comeback to defeat Real Betis 4-1 in the Conference League final Wednesday, becoming the first club to win all four of UEFA’s major competitions.
All of Chelsea’s goals came after halftime, with Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson converting pinpoint crosses from Cole Palmer in the 65th and 70th minutes, respectively, before Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo added more goals to complete the English team’s stirring fightback in Wroclaw, Poland.
Playing in its first European final, Betis went ahead through Abdessamad Ezzalzouli’s goal in the ninth minute but faded in the second half as Chelsea’s strength off the bench showed.
Chelsea added the Conference League – a third-tier competition only founded in 2021 – to its Champions League titles in 2012 and 2021, its titles in the Europa League – the successor to the UEFA Cup – in 2013 and 2019, and the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 1971 and 1998.
The match was preceded by fan disorder in the Polish city that led to 28 people being arrested.
Chelsea’s victory ended a remarkable run of successes for Spanish teams in European men’s title matches. Before this game, all 23 continental finals featuring Spanish clubs since the start of the 2001-02 season had been won by a Spanish team. That included four all-Spanish matchups.
Betis couldn’t maintain it in a bid to win a European title for the first time.
Instead, it was Chelsea earning another piece of silverware to wrap up a triumphant end to the season for manager Enzo Maresca in his first year at the club. On Sunday, Chelsea secured a fourth-place finish in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League and now has a first trophy since its American owners – Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital – bought the team in 2022 and spent huge money remodeling the squad.
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