Key events
HALF TIME: Real Betis 1-0 Chelsea
Bartra and Fernandez bicker as the whistle goes and everyone departs down the tunnel. It’s a half-time scoreline that flatters Chelsea. Their starting XI haven’t clicked at all. Enzo Maresca has some decisions to make during the break.
45 min: Neto cuts infield from the left and shifts the ball inside for Fernandez, who opens his body and takes a shot that deflects wide right of goal. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
44 min: Madueke, having switched flanks, crosses from the right. Neto, now on the left, can’t control at the far stick. Chelsea have been impotent up front so far.
42 min: The free kick is floated into the box. Jorgensen flaps at it. The ball drops to Natan, who shoots straight at Badiashile. Chelsea counter, and Neto chases after a ball played down the inside-left channel. Adrian claims just inside his box and takes Neto’s boot for his trouble. He’s not happy, but the referee continues on his laissez-faire way.
41 min: Isco and Ezzalzouli combine crisply down the inside-left channel. Isco prepares to take up the wall pass only to be scythed from behind by Caicedo. It’s a free kick in a dangerous position, five yards outside the box near the left-hand corner. It probably should be a booking, but the referee’s allowing things to go this evening.
39 min: Caicedo chips cutely down the middle of the park and finds Palmer just inside the Betis box. Palmer tries to twist and guide a backwards header goalwards, but can’t get enough loop on his effort. Adrian is on point to claim calmly, but Natan hacks away instead. That latter action the first moment of panic in the Betis defence.
37 min: A flicked header down the left releases Isco into space. He’s got team-mates in the middle, but strangely hesitates, allowing Gusto to get back into position and block the route for a cross. Isco turns tail and there goes that momentum.
35 min: Neto hoicks an ambitious shot high and wide from a tight angle on the right.
34 min: Isco, Cardoso and Ezzalzouli juggle their way down the left touchline. Every pass completed in a tight space. Isco then shovels a long ball down the flank, but Ezzalzouli doesn’t bother going for it, because Jorgensen has read the danger and comes out of his box to clean up.
32 min: Madueke wins a corner down the left, but nothing comes of it. They’ve still to work Adrian, but there’s a sense of their getting a foothold in the game at long last.
31 min: Ezzalzouli is a constant menace. He scampers past Gusto down the left again, but this time the defender fights back and extends a leg to deflect the ball out for a corner. From the set piece, Chelsea try to launch a counter, and they’ve got more men in their attack than Betis have defenders on point, but the bounce of the ball never quite falls for them, and they’re unable to piece a move together. Betis regroup.
29 min: A better ball out from Badiashile this time, as he breaks the lines and releases Fernandez into space down the left. The ball’s shuttled further left to Madueke, who gets a cross in, but Jackson’s heavy touch puts an end to the move. Better from Chelsea, though.
27 min: Madueke drops a shoulder in the hope of skating past Sabaly down the left, but the Betis defender sticks to him like glue. Madueke is forced to turn tail. Adrian hasn’t had anything to do yet.
25 min: Betis pounce on another loose Chelsea pass out from the back, this time from Badiashile. The ever-dangerous Ezzalzouli is fed down the left. He fizzes a low cross into the mixer. It just evades Cardoso and Bakambu, and Cucurella is able to mop up. But Chelsea are living very dangerously here.
23 min: Cardoso spins away from Palmer and Neto with one outrageous pirouette. He lays off to Ezzalzouli, who is clanked to the floor in the agricultural style by Gusto. Some referees would have flashed yellow for that. Betis aren’t quite giving Chelsea the runaround … but they’re definitely on top and playing with sublime confidence.
21 min: Betis should be two up. Ezzalzouli bothers Gusto once again down the left. He sits Caicedo down, then cuts back to Cardoso in a pocket of space 12 yards out. He shoots … but the ball takes a deflection and flies off target. Nothing comes of the corner. That was too easy for Betis in the build-up, though. Gusto and Caicedo all over the shop.
19 min: Some much-needed possession for Chelsea. They pass and probe, and a combination of Palmer and Neto nearly opens Betis up down the right, but the Spanish defence holds firm. No way through.
17 min: Isco is everywhere at the moment. He nearly releases Bakambu down the inside-right channel with a floated wedge, but Cucurella extends a leg to deflect the ball away from danger. Betis so close again to busting through the Chelsea back line.
15 min: Caicedo has a speculative dig from long range. It’s blocked easily.
14 min: … and from the resulting corner, Sabaly lashes wildly over the bar from distance.
13 min: Ezzalzouli is causing all manner of problems down the left. He hassles Gusto but can’t quite burst through. He then crosses low from the left. Jorgensen claims. But Betis come back again, Bartra trying his luck from the best part of 30 yards. His shot is heading into the top right. Jorgensen is forced to tip over the bar.
11 min: Chelsea are looking nervous. A simple long blooter down the middle nearly undoes them, Chalobah heading backwards nervously, Bakambu nearly nipping in. Had the striker controlled, he was clear on goal. Chalobah gets away with one.
GOAL! Real Betis 1-0 Chelsea (Ezzalzouli 9)
What a finish this is! Gusto’s loose pass is intercepted by Betis. Isco advances on the box down the inside-right channel, and squares cleverly for Ezzalzouli, who is in acres down the other channel. He takes a touch to make extra time, before lashing a low drive across Jorgensen and into the bottom right. What a finish, and what an assist by Isco.
7 min: Ezzalzouli slips the ball to Isco on the overlap down the left. Isco’s low cross is half-spilled by Jorgensen, but eventually claimed. It’s a breezy start to this final.
6 min: … so having said that, Palmer slaloms gracefully down the right and enters the box, before half-scuffing a shot straight at Adrian. Both teams on the front foot.
5 min: Ezzalzouli turns elegantly into space down the left. He reaches the byline and crosses. Antony heads harmlessly over the bar. Ezzalzouli looks the liveliest player during these admittedly very early exchanges.
4 min: Some early nerves betray Gusto, who lets the ball clank between his legs and nearly allows Isco to race clear with it. He recovers just in time to tidy up.
2 min: Bartra gives Adrian a bit of a hospital pass. The keeper clears, though he’s nearly closed down by Jackson, whose over-eager challenge is penalised. Adrian springs up again. Both teams in the wars, but no serious harm done.
1 min: Chelsea knock it long. Isco returns the ball down the left flank. Ezzalzouli nearly gets on the end of the long pass, but Chalobah comes across to clear. The Chelsea defender takes an accidental knee on the noggin for his trouble, but thankfully he’s up and about again soon enough.
Chelsea get the ball rolling. Wrocław roars.
The teams are out! Chelsea in their royal blue, Real Betis in their green and white stripes, matching the colours of the Andalusian flag … and of the Celtic kit that was donated to the club back in the 1910s, Betis having previously played in blue themselves. Speaking of colour schemes, the Stadion Wrocław is home to Polish second division side Śląsk Wrocław, who also dress in green, and so the fixtures and fittings of the stadium give Betis a little aesthetic edge. Only a little one, mind, given the vivid wall of blue down one end of the ground. Both sets of fans giving it plenty. What an atmosphere! We’ll be off in a few minutes, once pennants have been swapped and coins tossed.
Pre-match postbag. “The Apple TV show The Reluctant Traveler with Eugene Levy featured an episode on Real Betis last year. The host seemed really enamoured with the Spanish club and its passionate fans. If it were up to him, I reckon the Blues will be up Schitt’s Creek today” – Peter Oh
“For some reason even unknown to myself I wanted to find out where the first Conference Final was held so I opened the MBM from that game. I was struck by this line in the preamble: ‘Tonight’s finalists have played 36 matches between them in the competition thus far and tonight either Jose Mourinho or the considerably less famous Arne Slot will mastermind victory for their side.’ Whatever happened to those two managers since then?” – John Brennan
… but while Betis can’t boast much of a record against the English – they’ve lost six of their other seven matches, most recently getting thumped 5-1 on aggregate by Manchester United in the 2022-23 Europa League – Chelsea have their own historical demons to conquer. Their record against Spanish clubs is a positive one (W20 D18 L13) but their last encounter with Spaniards ended in a 4-0 aggregate thrashing by Real Madrid in the 2022-23 Champions League quarters. And the overall record between Spain and England in Uefa finals isn’t great: this is the 17th final between teams from the two countries, and Spain have won 11 of the previous 16, including all of the last nine. Ulp.
Chelsea and Real Betis have met four times before. The Blues won home and away in the quarter-finals of their ultimately successful 1997-98 Cup Winners’ Cup campaign. They also won 4-0 at Stamford Bridge in the 2005-06 Champions League groups, though Betis prevailed in the reverse in Seville, and that game remains their only win in eight fixtures against English opponents.
How Chelsea got here. They survived a scare in the play-off round against Servette, winning the first leg 2-0 but losing the second in Switzerland 2-1. However since then, it’s not been much of a struggle. They won all six of their matches to top the league phase, against Gent, Panathinaikos, Noah, Heidenheim, Astana and Shamrock Rovers, before seeing off Copenhagen, Legia Warsaw and Djurgårdens in the knockouts. Legia did beat them 2-1 at Stamford Bridge, but only after the Blues won 3-0 away.
By contrast, Betis have had quite the journey. After sailing through a play-off against Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, they finished 15th in the league phase, beating Celje, Petrocub Hîncești and HJK but losing to Legia Warsaw and Mladá Boleslav. After another play-off victory, this time over Gent, they’ve beaten Vitória de Guimarães, Jagiellonia Białystok and tournament whipping boys Fiorentina to get to the final.
Some less welcome pre-match reading. The Polish police were forced to mobilise as fans acted up last night and this afternoon. Jacob Steinberg reports from Wroclaw.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca speaks to TNT Sports. “It’s a final … an important game … but we try to prepare as we have done all season … we have started to win games in an ugly way … that is something at the beginning of the season we struggled to do … Forest away, you need that, I am very happy … it has been very difficult [to select the starting XI] … the boys all deserve to play this game … today it has been complicated for the first XI but hopefully it’s the right one … I said this season we would have liked to play Champions League or Europa League but we are in the Conference League and we need to try to win that … for us this is the most important competition, because it is the one we are playing … winning is very important … a starting point … for fighting for titles … hopefully we can win … [Pellegrini, who Maresca worked under at West Ham] is going to try to win the game, I will try to win the game, and in the end nothing will change.”
Real Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini talks to TNT Sports. “This is the first time Betis is going to play a European final so it is not easy to manage that … I am sure from the first minute we will try to have the personality to win the game … the fans are unbelievable … very similar to West Ham … we always have 50,000 people behind us and if you have a big stadium you will play with 70,000 … Betis fans are exactly the same … always with the team every time we play … we need to win this game for them … both teams play in a similar way … attacking … from the first minute … a difficult game because Chelsea are a good team.”
The Real Betis side contains some names familiar to followers of the Premier League. Antony is on loan from Manchester United, and has lost just one of his previous four meetings with Chelsea, winning two and drawing one. Adrián used to keep goal for West Ham United and Liverpool, winning the Premier League and Super Cup with the latter. Pablo Fornals spent four years at West Ham, and was part of their side that won this competition in 2023. Giovanni Lo Celso, formerly of Spurs, and erstwhile Southampton defender Romain Perraud are on the bench. And then there’s Isco, who has won two previous Uefa finals against English opposition, both with Real Madrid, both against Liverpool in 2018 and 2022. He’s five for five in European finals.
Chelsea make five changes to the team selected for the 1-0 Premier League win at Nottingham Forest last Sunday. Filip Jörgensen replaces Robert Sánchez in goal. Benoît Badiashile, Trevoh Chalobah and Malo Gusto step into the defence, with Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill and club captain Reece James making way. Nicolas Jackson comes in for Jadon Sancho up front. All of the players replaced are on the bench.
The teams
Real Betis: Adrian, Sabaly, Bartra, Natan, Ricardo Rodriguez, Johnny, Fornals, Antony, Isco, Ezzalzouli, Bakambu.
Subs: Vieites, Gonzalez, Perraud, Altimira, Lo Celso, Ruibal, Mendy, Jesus Rodriguez, Ortiz, Flores, Pablo Garcia.
Chelsea: Jorgensen, Gusto, Chalobah, Badiashile, Cucurella, Fernandez, Caicedo, Pedro Neto, Palmer, Madueke, Jackson.
Subs: Sanchez, Bergstrom, Adarabioyo, Acheampong, Colwill, Amougou, James, Dewsbury-Hall, George, Sancho, Nkunku, Guiu.
Referee: Irfan Peljto (Bosnia-Herzegovina).
Pre-match reading. Set that scene. Whet that palate.
There have been three previous Conference League finals. Here’s a chance to relive them all. West Ham fans, you’re welcome.
Preamble
The four-year-old Uefa Conference League may not have the cachet of the Europa League, never mind the star-spangled glamour and high-alpha-status of the Champions League. But it still counts for something. Try talking it down to Roma, whose 2022 victory was the Italian giants’ first in Europe for 61 years. Try dismissing it to anyone involved with West Ham United, whose 2023 win marked their first trophy of any sort since 1980. Try speaking ill of it to Olympiacos, whose triumph last year was a continental first for both club and country. Try telling Fiorentina, twice losing finalists and losing semi-finalists this year, that their tears, aching and longing mean nothing.
Chelsea surely won’t be looking down their noses at it this evening. Their game last weekend at Nottingham Forest, in which victory secured their place in next year’s Champions League, may have been more important in terms of pounds and pence, as well as pride for a club more used to a place at the top table. But football’s about bugger all if that means more than winning an actual pot, and here’s a chance for some shiny silverware at the end of an occasionally fraught season. Plus a win would make them the first club to have won all five major Uefa titles. The chance to complete the set might not come around again too soon.
Real Betis meanwhile are looking to win their first-ever European trophy in their first-ever European final. Given their arch city rivals Sevilla are the greatest club in Europa League history, that’s a gap on their roll of honour they’ll be desperate to fill. So this counts for something all right; both teams have plenty on the line this evening. Kick-off at the Stadion Wrocław in Poland is at 9pm local time, 8pm BST. It’s on!