Widely mocked, wildly celebrated - how Chelsea won the Conference League

Many wondered how much winning the Conference League would mean to Chelsea - but there were few doubts at the final whistle.

Nearly all season the Blues have walked over their opposition in Uefa's third-rate tournament, but they were really tested by Real Betis in Wroclaw, especially in the first half.

However, four second-half goals were all wildly celebrated - and the players then partied after the 4-1 win as much as if they had won any other major trophy.

Cole Palmer, the man of the match, set up goals for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson, with Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo also netting.

"Winning this trophy is massive," said former Blues keeper Mark Schwarzer, a BBC Radio 5 Live summariser for the game.

"You can see what it means to them and how important it is to win it.

"This is what it's about. It's about creating that bond and that experience of winning a trophy."

It was Chelsea's first trophy since the Fifa Club World Cup in February 2022 and their first considered a major prize since the 2021 Champions League.

The club's former midfielder Joe Cole, watching for TNT Sports, said: "People turn their noses up at it but look at all the smiling faces among the players, the staff, the fans. This is what it is all about."

Fellow pundit Lucy Ward added: "People mock this trophy but this will mean a lot to this set of Chelsea players because it is a platform to move on into the Champions League this season."

BBC Sport takes a look at the story of Chelsea's Conference League campaign.

Chelsea's European campaign actually almost ended in August.

The Conference League is the only one of Europe's competitions where English clubs have to go through a play-off round.

The Blues led Servette 3-0 on aggregate 14 minutes into the second leg, having won 2-0 at Stamford Bridge and taken an early lead in Geneva.

But Servette pulled two goals back and, after a delay in the game as fireworks were let off, the hosts almost scored in the 94th minute to force extra time.

"This kind of game, at the end, you have many things to lose and not many things to win," said boss Enzo Maresca afterwards, following just his fourth game in charge.

Rotating and resting players in secondary cups is not a new phenomenon - but Chelsea took it to a new level in the Conference League this season.

They averaged 8.5 changes per European game, based on their previous Premier League line-up.

In the league stage there was a recognised Premier League team and a Conference League XI - with very little overlap. They were much changed in the domestic cups too, although fell at the second hurdle in both.

England forward Palmer, their star player, was not even registered in Europe until the knockout games.

As the Blues started playing in knockout games they started using more first-team players, like Palmer, Caicedo and Marc Cucurella.

But even through that they never made fewer than five changes from their last league game, including the final.

As the season ends, well, until next month's Fifa Club World Cup, 18 Chelsea players featured in more Conference League than Premier League games this season.

That includes five players who left the club in January.

Midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who played all 15 European games, featured 13 times in the league.

Marc Guiu, whose six goals were two shy of the Conference League Golden Boot, has yet to start a league game.

However, the final saw a stronger XI, with only four outfield changes from the side that beat Nottingham Forest last Sunday to clinch a Champions League spot.

"Chelsea have got so much more money than anyone else competing in this competition," said ex-Blues winger Pat Nevin on BBC Radio 5 Live.

"But they have respected the competition by saying, 'we're not going to put out the softest of teams but we'll put out enough to make sure we'll get through'.

"I have to say, looking back on it all now, Enzo Maresca has done a great job."

Chelsea have given plenty of youngsters game time in the Conference League this season.

Six players who have yet to make their Premier League debut have featured in Europe for them this season.

That includes 16-year-old Reggie Walsh, who became Chelsea's youngest player since 1967 when he played both legs of their semi-final against Djurgarden.

Eight academy players have made their debut in the competition, with 13 appearances for 19-year-old forward Tyrique George, compared to 11 in domestic games.

Seven of 19-year-old defender Josh Acheampong's nine starts for Chelsea have been in the Conference League.

"It's definitely a stepping stone to men's football," he said of the Conference League.

Samuel Rak-Sakyi, 20, played four times in the league phase, but his most senior domestic football has been in the EFL Trophy with Chelsea's under-23s.

However, with the trophy on the line, none of them featured in the showpiece against Betis.

Chelsea played a few unfamiliar names this season in Europe's third-tier tournament.

Before Real Betis, the only team from Europe's top five leagues they met were Heidenheim, who ended the season playing in the German relegation-promotion play-offs.

"The fact Chelsea are now coming after we've won the first three games is honestly quite hard to believe," said Heidenheim boss Frank Schmidt, who has been in charge since they were a fifth-tier side in 2007.

"But the fact is they're not coming here for a friendly, we don't have to pay them. It's a competitive fixture. Heidenheim and the entire region are really excited."

Chelsea welcomed Armenian side FC Noah, named after the biblical character with the ark, to Stamford Bridge.

"Being in the Conference League is a spotlight for the club, to show ourselves to European football, because now everybody knows who Noah is," said Noah boss Rui Mota.

"It's an honour to have this game."

Then came their longest ever European trip, a 7,000-mile round journey to Kazakhstan to play Astana.

The flight took eight hours, having to avoid a direct flight path over Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East, amid multiple ongoing conflicts. Many first-team players were left in London.

With a five-hour time zone difference, the Blues acted as if they remained on UK time, making the kick-off 15:30 instead of 20:30 local time - and then the game was played in -11C.

Maresca and two directors wrote a letter to the Chelsea fans who attended, personally thanking them.

And they even had big talking points until the semi-finals and their match on the plastic pitch of Djurgarden.

Even the Swedish side's manager called his own side's pitch "horrible", although it did not cause problems in the end.

That Servette scare in August was the closest Chelsea came to going out all season.

They cruised through in other ties, with every group game won by two or more goals. Every knockout tie, including the final, was won by two or more goals.

The biggest win was the 8-0 rout of Armenian side FC Noah in November. That was the joint-second biggest win in Chelsea's history and the Conference League's biggest victory so far.

That took them to 16 goals in their first three league games, and ended on 26 in six games. Including the qualifiers, they netted 45 times in 15 games.

The Noah success led ex-Blues and England midfielder Cole to say on TNT Sports: "Chelsea shouldn't be in this competition, but this is where they are.

"This tournament doesn't start for Chelsea until the quarter-finals or semi-finals. They are massive favourites to win it and they should be."

They never trailed in any knockout round, beating Copenhagen 3-1 on aggregate, Legia Warsaw 4-2 and Djurgarden 5-1.

Trailing to Abde Ezzalzouli's goal at half-time in the final gave them a scare - but they took command after the break.

After a 5-1 win over Shamrock Rovers in December, the Irish side's manager Stephen Bradley said: "If they want to, they can show up and probably put another two XIs out there and win this competition.

"If they're in the Champions League they could go close to winning that. That's the level they have."

Previous Conference Leagues have been celebrated hugely.

Roma, under Jose Mourinho, ended a 14-year trophy drought when they beat Feyenoord in 2022.

Jarrod Bowen's last-minute winner for David Moyes' West Ham against Fiorentina in 2023 earned the Londoners a first trophy in 43 years.

By beating Fiorentina last year, Olympiakos became the first Greek side to win a European club trophy.

But for Chelsea - the first winners used to lifting previous European silverware - it did not feel the same in the build-up. They did not even sell out their 12,500-ticket allocation for the final.

But there were no muted celebrations at the end as their players, staff and fans inside the stadium appeared to enjoy it as much as anything else they have won.

Defender Levi Colwill, 22, said: "You can see the way the fans are celebrating now, it shows how much it means to them."

So what next?

"The Chelsea fans are very demanding because they are used to winning," added Cole, who won three Premier Leagues with the Blues.

"Now they have seen this team win, they have more belief, the players have more belief. I feel like there is a really good era coming."