The standards of Chelsea, double European champion, are in the Champions League. Meanwhile, Enzo Maresca’s team will have to play, win and enjoy in the Conference League. A competition, the third at the continental level, in which they start as the main favorites, and they demonstrated this at their premiere. With João Félix playing Cole Palmer and the ‘B team’ again on the pitch, Gent, who did not give up until the end, ended up taking a rout from their visit to Stamford Bridge. There are two 4-2, four wins, five wins and six games without losing that Chelsea has had in a row. Now, the blue project seems to be starting.
Two goals from the London team, owned by Renato Veiga and Pedro Neto, preceded the Belgian team’s first goal. In both halves, Enzo Maresca’s pupils went from better to less. So much so that, after doubling their goals in favor again, this time through Christopher Nkunku and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Gent gave their fans another goal to celebrate. The sixth and final of the night in total. The blues were justly deserving of a victory that strengthens their line-up of great candidates for the European title. Chelsea’s big stars, forced to support the team from the field, await their opportunity between the bench and the stands. Even so, Enzo Maresca has enough strength to get through the group stage without any major problems.
João Félix returns
João Félix, like Chelsea himself, went from more to less during the first 45 minutes. The start of the game by Enzo Maresca’s pupils was very good. Frantic. A flurry of arrivals, from both sides, shook the Belgian team. The blues, energetic, electric and dynamic, led by a very active João Félix, found the goal prize after 15 minutes. It was Renato Veiga, from Mykhailo Mudryk’s cross, who opened the scoring at Stamford Bridge. Deserved, but counterproductive.
Chelsea’s 1-0 victory inspired Gent more than the London team itself. The first half ended with several dangerous approaches by the visiting team that, luckily for the local parish, did not end up inside the goal today defended by Filip Jörgensen. Despite the drop in performance experienced by his team as the minutes passed, the local parish did not hesitate to chant again: “João Félix, oh, oh, oh; João Félix, oh, oh, oh.”
Goals and lights party
In the second half, in addition to chants for João Félix, many games of lights in the stands and the occasional clash between both fans that did not go to any major level, what there was, above all, were goals. The first of them, from Pedro Neto, came in the first play of the second 45 minutes. Good long ball by Axel Disasi, failure by the visiting defense and point-blank shot by the Portuguese winger, his second goal of the season for the Blues. Gent gave Stamford Bridge a scare when, just five minutes later, Tsuyoshi Watanabe pulled one back with a header. But it would stay at that, a scare.
Christopher Nkunku, with 3-1, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who made it 4-1, lit up all the flashes of the local parish in the Stamford Bridge stands. The Frenchman’s seventh goal of the season in 10 games, with a shot from the edge of the area, and the former Leicester City midfielder’s first, after a good team play, culminated the Blues’ celebration on their return to European competitions. João Félix played the 90 minutes and Marc Guiu came onto the field for the final stages of the match, just when Gent, then, put the finishing touch to the clash with the final 4-2 in the 90th minute.
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Changes
Tiago Araújo (63′, Noah Fadiga), Max Dean (63′, Andri Gudjohnsen), Sven Kums (77′, Franck Surdez), Omri Gandelman (77′, Mathias Delorge), Marc Guiu (79′, Christopher Nkunku), Tyrique George (79′, Pedro Neto), Matisse Samoise (88′, Hugo Gambor)
Goals
1-0, 11′: Renato Veiga2-0, 45′: Pedro Neto2-1, 49′: Tsuyoshi Watanabe3-1, 62′: Nkunku4-1, 69′: Kieran Dewsbury-Hall4-2, 89′: Omri Gandelman
Cards
Arbitro: Daniel Schlager
Referee WHERE: Sören Storks, Patrick Hanslbauer
Axel Disasi (71′, Yellow), Archie Brown (93′, Yellow)
