Chelsea “approached the finals in the wrong way,” says Maresca

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said he was not surprised by a bad appearance in the first half in the first place Winning of Conference League over Real Betis.

Betis inspired Isco was a far better side in an introductory 45 minutes and could have been more than 1-0 in Wroclaw.

But Maresca introduced Reece James at the interval and saw Cole Palmer evoked two fine goals for Enza Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson, before Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo added some glow.

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– UEFA Conference League (@Conf_league) 28 May 2025

Maresca beat Nottingham Forest last weekend to secure the Champions League football, and the manager said they were not fully focused on the conference league finals.

Said TNT Sports: “I’m very happy. In the first half I was a little frustrated, because I think we came to the game in the wrong way.

“I expected it a little, happiness was a little too much after Nottingham Forest, because you go all season waiting and waiting for (to achieve the Champions League). So we fought a little at the first half, the second half we were much better and now we are very happy.

“The message after Nottingham Forest was:” The guys if we want to be an important team, then what we did and we have to win in the finals. “But that’s luck, fatigue because we had 48 hours less than them, they played on Friday for nothing, we played on Sunday for a big, big target.

“We played much better in the second half.”

Chelsea defender Levi Colwill said it was a good effort to become the first team to win the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League and the Cup.

He added: “Being the first club to win everything is possible, you can see the fans to celebrate now, and it shows how much it means to them.

“We knew it would be a good team, especially at the beginning with their fans who pushed them, but we knew it would die. We had to wait and choose our moments and that is what we did in the second half.

“It was amazing. We achieved everything we wanted to do. It feels amazing to win my first European Chelsea competition, I hope so many more will go. And getting the Champions League for the next season, I don’t think you can get anything better than that.”

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– Chelsea fc (@chelseafc) 28 May 2025