- Chelsea captain Reece James started Wednesday’s final on the bench
- Enzo Maresca has now revealed why he did not have him in his starting XI
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Enzo Maresca hopes Chelsea’s stirring comeback in Wednesday night’s Conference League thrashing of Real Betis can be the start of something special, as the Blues became the first club ever to win every competition in Europe.
It looked like they were throwing away their chance at history when trailing 1-0 at half-time in Wroclaw, Poland, but Cole Palmer set up Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson with two sublime crosses to turn this final around. Late goals from Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo completed the 4-1 rout over Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
This came four days after Chelsea won 1-0 at Nottingham Forest to confirm their return to the Champions League, and Maresca said: ‘The message after Nottingham was, “Guys if we want to be an important team, then what we have done is done and we have to win the final.”
‘But it’s the happiness, the tiredness, because we had 48 hours less than them. They played on Friday for nothing, we played on Sunday for a big target. In the second half we played much better. I am very happy.’
Chelsea captain Reece James came on at half-time after he was surprisingly dropped to the bench by Maresca, who said: ‘I promise you, I would start always with Reece. But I’m trying to protect him. He’s a top player for us. It’s like Cole, the problem is we need to manage him. When we changed him, he said to me, “Boss, don’t worry, we’re going to win the game”.’
James added: ‘It’s a great feeling. As the game went on we grew into it and thankfully we scored four goals in the second half. And next season we go again in the Champions League.
Reece James did not start Chelsea’s Conference League final against Real Betis
Enzo Maresca bizarrely claimed he was ‘trying to protect him’ despite it being a European final and Chelsea’s last game of the season
James came off the bench at half time as Chelsea scored four second-half goals to win 4-1 and lift the Conference League trophy
‘Of course it is devastating to know you are not starting in a final. I want to play every game, but it was the manager’s decision. Once he made the decision, I had to move on and accept it and be ready when I was needed.’
Another one of the club’s own in Levi Colwill said: ‘To be the first club to have won everything possible, you can see the fans celebrating and it shows how much it means. We knew they were going to be a good team, especially at the start with their fans, but we knew it was going to die off.’
Palmer said: ‘I was trying to find the space as the game got going. To be the only team in history (to win full set in Europe), it’s a great achievement.’
Betis boss Pellegrini said: ‘What hurts us the most is not being able to give this title to the fans. We have qualified for Europe for next season. We will try to build our squad to be competitive. Injuries really caused us trouble, with a few who couldn’t play. We should be proud of the kind of final we played. We reached the final with this squad. We will try to make an even better squad for next year.’
