Chelsea’s Conference League quest: A step toward redemption | OneFootball

It has been a tough two and a half seasons for Chelsea’s men's team under the new ownership. They have gone two years without silverware for the first time in 20 years. However, this season, they have a chance to get back to winning trophies in the form of the UEFA Conference League.

Chelsea are among the five clubs that have won all the major UEFA cup competitions before the introduction of the UEFA Conference League. In fact, they were the only team to have won twice each of the four titles: the UEFA Champions League/European Cup, the UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup. This season, they have an opportunity to win the newly introduced Conference League and become the only club to win all five.

In the Premier League, Enzo Maresca’s side are fourth, 21 points behind league leaders Liverpool. They are out of both domestic cups as well. The Conference League represents their only opportunity to win silverware this season.

Among the teams qualified for the Conference League, the Blues were undisputed favorites from day one. They proved their credentials by winning all six games in the league phase of the competition, two more than the next best. They were also the top attacking side, scoring 26 goals, eight more than second-best, while no team had a better defense than them.

The group stage was pretty straightforward for them. However, the real test starts in the knockout rounds. Despite the win in the first leg of the Round of 16 against Danish side Copenhagen, they did not look as convincing as they did in the league phase. Their poor form since mid-December is also a reason for that.

Players like João Félix, Axel Disasi, Cesare Casadei, and Carney Chukwuemeka, who featured in the league phase, have left the club either on loan or permanently. The league phase top scorer, Marc Guiu, is currently injured. They are also dealing with injuries to players who were expected to feature in the knockout stages, like Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, and Malo Gusto.

On Thursday, Chelsea will host Copenhagen in the second leg at Stamford Bridge. In front of home fans, they will expect to march toward the quarter-finals. Unlike the league phase, the margin for error is very low, especially when considering the contrasting difficulties of home and away fixtures. From the next round onwards, the winner of this tie will play the second leg away. For the new owners and the young players, irrespective of the difficulties, they have to go all the way to overcome that first title barrier.