Chelsea beat Real Betis 4-1 to win Conference League - English club completes set of UEFA titles

WROCLAW, Poland:

Chelsea produced an impressive second-half rally to beat Real Betis 4-1 in the Conference League final yesterday and become the first team to have all four of UEFA's club competitions in their trophy collection.

All of Chelsea's goals came after halftime, with Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson converting pinpoint crosses from Cole Palmer in the 65th and 70th minutes, respectively, before substitute Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo added more goals to complete the English team's stirring fightback in Wroclaw, Poland.

Playing in their first European final, Betis went ahead through Abdessamad Ezzalzouli's goal in the ninth minute but faded in the second half as Chelsea's strength off the bench showed.

One of those influential substitutes, club captain Reece James, lifted the trophy to a backdrop of ticker tape and loud roars with teammates in the middle of the field.

"I thought in the first half we were flat," James said. "The game didn't go our way early on and it looked like it took a lot out of us. We needed a reaction in the second half, and we got it."

Chelsea added the Conference League - a third-tier competition only founded in 2021 - to their Champions League titles in 2012 and 2021, their titles in the Europa League - the successor to the UEFA Cup - in 2013 and 2019, and the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup in 1971 and 1998.

The result ended a remarkable run of successes for Spanish teams in European men's title matches. Before this game, all 23 continental finals featuring Spanish clubs since the start of the 2001-02 season had been won by a Spanish team. That included four all-Spanish matchups.

Betis couldn't maintain it in a bid to win a European title for the first time.

Instead, it was Chelsea earning another piece of silverware to wrap up a triumphant end to the season for manager Enzo Maresca in his first year at the club. On Sunday, Chelsea secured a fourth-place finish in the English Premier League to qualify for the Champions League and now have a first trophy since their American owners -- Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, fronted by Behdad Eghbali - bought the team in 2022 and spent huge money remodelling the squad.

Boehly and Eghbali went on the pitch after the final whistle to celebrate with the team.

The match was preceded by fan disorder in the Polish city that led to 28 people being arrested.

Police used stun grenades and a water cannon against the teams' fans who were disturbing public order in the city, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

- AP