Real Betis 1–4 Chelsea: Player Ratings As Palmer-Inspired Blues Win Conference League

Chelsea rallied in the second half of the Conference League final, scoring four times after the break to defeat Real Betis 4–1 in Wrocław.

The final saw Manuel Pellegrini match-up against a close ally in Enzo Maresca, who’d played under the Betis manager at Málaga before working on his staff at West Ham United.

The Italian’s side had been jubilant at the weekend after securing Champions League football for next season, but it was the Spaniards, who finished sixth in La Liga off the back of a four-game winless run to end the campaign, that started the brighter.

There were efforts from Antony and Cole Palmer at both ends of the pitch in an exciting opening before Betis took the lead off the back of a sloppy Chelsea giveaway in midfield. Malo Gusto was responsible on this occasion, and the inverting right-back couldn’t recover in time to prevent Abde Ezzalzouli from giving Pellegrini’s side the lead.

The Betis winger was keen to exploit the space vacated by the Frenchman, and captain Isco expertly picked Abde out inside the Chelsea box before the former Barcelona man finished with precision.

Betis then sought to double their advantage, seizing upon the early momentum. The Blues struggled to progress centrally, with Betis’ compact and narrow structure bringing out the very worst of Maresca’s rigid positional play. Centre-back Marc Barta forced a good save from Filip Jörgensen after a vertical Moisés Caicedo pass was picked off in midfield.

Johnny Cardoso then ought to have scored following more excellent work from Abde down the left.

There were sterile periods of Chelsea possession but nothing more, as former West Ham and Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian enjoyed a quiet first half. The Blues produced a spell of pressure at the end of the opening period, but they’d been tamed by the wily Betis.

Reece James entered after the halftime interval to put Gusto out of his misery following an abysmal first-half display, and the Chelsea skipper immediately delivered a teasing cross which wasn’t pounced upon. James then had a potentially goal-bound effort blocked by Natan, with his influence improving the Blues.

There was a sense that Betis were hanging on by the hour mark, with goalscorer Abde substituted through injury, and Chelsea, who’d been so bereft of quality in the final third, found something via Cole Palmer’s left boot. The playmaker’s cross was pinpoint, and box-crashing Fernández timed his run superbly to head home.

Well in the ascendancy, the Premier League side completed the turnaround just minutes later as Nicolas Jackson, suspended for Chelsea’s final two Premier League outings of the season, converted another Palmer cross to thrust the Blues into the lead.

Jackson then spurned a gilt-edged chance to double Chelsea’s advantage when he ran clear of Betis’ defence, but an inexplicable heavy touch allowed Adrian to claim. However, that moment didn’t come back to bite the Senegalese striker, who watched on from the bench as Jadon Sancho curled home the Blues’ third superbly to seal glory before Caicedo added further gloss to the scoreline with a deflected strike in stoppage time.