Chelsea 2 Servette 0There have been some great European nights at Stamford Bridge, in this century and the last, when triumph, despair or controversy took hold and everyone was sure they would remember the evening for a long time. This was not one of them.
In the Uefa competition Chelsea never wanted, in the midst of a tumultuous late August transfer window storm and a new manager trying to plot his way, this was a match low in quality at times. There is still the second leg of this tie against Servette, currently fifth in the Swiss Super League, to come next week. Two goals was not quite the margin of victory that Chelsea might have wanted against a team with nothing to lose.
This Swiss club will have taken some encouragement from their performance in London. At half-time it was still 0-0, although a penalty from Christopher Nkunku and then a second goal from the substitute Noni Madueke changed the mood somewhat. Before then it had been downbeat and the start of the second half was marked by an extraordinary miss from the young Chelsea striker Marc Guiu – who seemed to have the whole goal to aim at but could not finish in time.
The Uefa Europa Conference League is not where Chelsea expect to find themselves, even less so in the play-offs. Around Europe on this Thursday night, they were in an unusual peer group, with the likes of St Patrick’s from Dublin, Wales’ The New Saints, the Faroe Islands’ Klaksvik and others from Andorra and Gibraltar among those playing for a place in the Europa Conference League group stages. This was the fourth and final qualifying round. For others it has been a long trek.
This tie was not even broadcast by Uefa’s British rights-holder TNT Sport, and the teamsheet had the wrong Servette manager listed. By the end of the game Enzo Maresca had called upon the likes of Cole Palmer and Enzo Fernandez, although the team looked flat nonetheless. The Servette substitute Jeremy Guillemenot had an excellent chance to score in the 90th minute from a corner. Surely next week in Geneva, Chelsea will not toss away their chance of a return, however modest the competition, to European football?
More to follow….