Key events
FULL TIME: Real Betis 1-4 Chelsea
Chelsea are the 2025 Conference League champions! They complete the full set of Uefa trophies!
90 min +5: Perraud is booked for taking a shot after the whistle that smacks Chalobah in the chops. A farcical end to the final.
90 min +4: Bartra balloons a shot off target from long distance. So much frustration in that. A first European trophy continues to elude Real Betis.
90 min +3: Chelsea’s bench en fête. Hugs and kisses.
GOAL! Real Betis 1-4 Chelsea (Caicedo 90+1)
Fernandez drives down the left. He rolls infield for Caicedo, who takes aim from the edge of the D and whistles a low shot into the bottom left. Adrian no chance!
90 min: There will be five added minutes.
88 min: “Has someone told Antony he is still playing for Man United?” quips Malcolm Shuttleworth. He’s done nothing tonight all right, and now his frustration boils over, as he engages in philosophical debate with Fernandez, having had his offer of a help-up refused. The pair flap at each other but thankfully don’t connect. Grown men and all.
87 min: Palmer, who turned this game around for Chelsea with those two world-class assists, makes way for Guiu. Meanwhile Lo Celso has come on for Cardoso.
86 min: Or is it? Jesus Rodriguez enters the Chelsea box from the left and battles to get in ahead of James. He goes down, and there’s contact from behind, but who knows what referees think any more. No penalty, and VAR isn’t of a mind to overturn the decision. Real Betis not happy.
85 min: Sancho is booked for stripping off his shirt, like he’ll care about that. He disappears into a sea of team-mates. This is over.
GOAL! Real Betis 1-3 Chelsea (Sancho 83)
Sancho doesn’t need asking twice! Dewsbury-Hall drives down the middle and passes towards Sancho to his left. Sabaly should intercept and clear, but misses the ball altogether. Sancho takes up possession, enters the box, and curls a powerful shot across Adrian and into the top right! Exquisite finish!
82 min: Fernandez spins to make space in the middle of the park before sending Sancho on a run down the left. Sancho drifts inside and considers shooting. He may as well have done, because after his dithering awhile, the move breaks down.
80 min: Jackson can’t continue – he might have tweaked a hamstring while butchering that chance – and is replaced by Dewsbury-Hall.
79 min: Jackson goes down, requiring some treatment. After the whistle goes, Palmer boots the ball away, and goes into the book as a result.
77 min: Sabaly wins a corner down the right. From the set piece, Cardoso shapes to shoot, but can’t get an effort away. Then suddenly Chelsea counter, and Jackson is completely free on the halfway line! He’s only got Adrian to beat, plus Sancho to his right, but takes an absurdly heavy touch to allow the keeper to claim. That should have been that.
76 min: Betis look collectively flustered. Even Isco, imperious in the first half, is struggling to control the ball. Such a shift in momentum.
74 min: So far, Chelsea have completed 477 passes to 198 for Betis. Whether that tells the whole story, I’m not sure, as it’s also fair to say it’s been a proper game of two halves so far. Can Betis reverse that by making this a half of two halves? They’ll need to. It doesn’t look like they’ve got it in them.
72 min: Betis have been sucker-punched by Palmer’s brilliance. They need something to change, and send on the pink-and-blue-haired Aitor Ruibal for the frustrated Bakambu.
GOAL! Real Betis 1-2 Chelsea (Jackson 70)
Palmer assists again! And again it’s delightful. He turns Jesus Rodríguez inside out, like an old sock, with a dragback down the right. He crosses to the near post. Jackson again can’t miss. He should head home, but the ball pings off the Chelsea crest instead, and into the top right! What a turnaround.
69 min: Betis show in attack for the first time in ages, Cardoso dribbling down the left channel and rolling infield for Isco, who has the opportunity to shoot from just inside the box, but opts to take a touch instead. Bad idea. Chelsea swarm him, and the chance is gone.
68 min: Sancho drives down the left and cuts back for Palmer, on the left-hand edge of the Betis D. Palmer sidefoots hard towards the top left. Adrian does well to parry and claim.
67 min: On the touchline, Manuel Pellegrini wears a grim look. And no wonder, it’s been all Chelsea in this second half. Betis can’t keep hold of the ball at all. And now with the scores level, soaking up pressure suddenly doesn’t seem such an attractive option.
GOAL! Real Betis 1-1 Chelsea (Fernandez 65)
… that hasn’t paid dividend! Palmer, who has been super-quiet so far, finds a bit of time and space down the inside-right channel. He checks inside before floating a glorious in-swinging cross towards Fernandez, who can’t miss from six yards, gently guiding a header across Adrian and into the bottom left! Lovely goal.
64 min: Palmer dribbles towards the Betis box down the left channel but there’s no way through. The Spanish side seem happy enough to sit back and soak things up right now. However …
63 min: … so one of Manchester United’s on-loan wingers will be heading back to Old Trafford with a European medal in his pocket. But which one?
61 min: Chelsea make a double change. Neto and Badiashile off, Colwill and Sancho on. Sancho playing in this final 12 months after featuring for Borussia Dortmund in last season’s Champions League denouement.
59 min: Chelsea have been the better side since the restart. Betis looked so comfortable on the ball during the early exchanges of the first half. Not so much right now.
57 min: That corner’s hit long as well, but Jackson’s shot from a tight angle is easy pea-roller pickings for Adrian. At least Jackson’s fit to continue.
56 min: The corner’s hit long from the left. James meets the dropping ball by sending a screamer goalwards. It’s deflected wide right. Another corner coming, this time from the right.
55 min: Madueke romps down the left flank. He whips a cross into the mixer. Adrian comes off his line and punches clear. He also catches Jackson and his own man Bartra. Enzo Maresca dances around, demanding a penalty. Badiashile is booked for doing the same. VAR has a look, but it’s just a corner.
53 min: The goalscorer Ezzalzouli has been limping since the start of the second half, and he can’t continue. He makes way for the flying 19-year-old wing prospect Jesus Rodríguez.
52 min: Jackson nearly manages to catch Bartra in the face with a high-kick. He’s fortunate that he only grazes one of his opponent’s nipples instead. The referee keeps his cards in his pocket.
50 min: Madueke releases Jackson down the left, but the out-of-sorts striker can’t find a team-mate with a pass back inside, and then the flag goes up for offside anyway.
49 min: The in-form Antony has been quiet so far. He probes down the left flank but is forced to retrace his steps.
47 min: James is in the thick of it early doors, floating a diagonal ball from the right and nearly finding Fernandez in space in the Betis box. But that’s a goal kick. “We’re currently in the Betis stadium watching the match on the big screens in the centre of the pitch, the last-ever event before this old stadium is knocked down,” report Garry and Alex McGibbon. “There’s AT LEAST 60,000 people here cheering on Betis and I’ve never experienced anything like it. If the Betis players had any idea what the atmosphere is like here there’d be no way on earth they lose this match.”
Betis get the second half underway. Malo Gusto, who was all over the shop during the first half, has been replaced at right-back by the club captain Reece James. Betis have made a swap too, replacing Ricardo Rodríguez at left-back with Romain Perraud.
Half-time postbag. “Among the list of Premier League ex-pats and aforementioned Reluctant Traveler episode stars is Hector Bellerin. He misses out today due to injury, but presume he’s as keen as any for silverware against his former London rivals” – Pete Mumola
“The competition might not be the level many Chelsea fans want, but I’m a bit of a veteran, so I’ll take whatever’s going” – Julian Menz
“I think the evidence of the last couple of decades is pretty clear in that La Liga, across the board, is the premier league in Europe. While success has many fathers, I suspect that facing a big three, each with disparate playing identities, has led the second tier to become very flexible tactically. The way Betis snuff out counter-attacks has been masterful, and yet they have been able to attack in numbers, putting pressure on a callow defending unit. Pellegrini has given his players a plan perfectly suited to defeat Chelsea, and his players are executing it perfectly” – Kári Tulinius
“Has Gusto been inverted into no-man’s-land?” – Gary Stover
Half-time entertainment. Whatever happens here tonight, Chelsea will still have the Club World Cup to play for this summer. Speaking of which …
HALF TIME: Real Betis 1-0 Chelsea
Bartra and Fernandez bicker as the whistle goes and everyone departs down the tunnel. It’s a half-time scoreline that flatters Chelsea. Their starting XI haven’t clicked at all. Enzo Maresca has some decisions to make during the break.
45 min: Neto cuts infield from the left and shifts the ball inside for Fernandez, who opens his body and takes a shot that deflects wide right of goal. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
44 min: Madueke, having switched flanks, crosses from the right. Neto, now on the left, can’t control at the far stick. Chelsea have been impotent up front so far.
42 min: The free kick is floated into the box. Jorgensen flaps at it. The ball drops to Natan, who shoots straight at Badiashile. Chelsea counter, and Neto chases after a ball played down the inside-left channel. Adrian claims just inside his box and takes Neto’s boot for his trouble. He’s not happy, but the referee continues on his laissez-faire way.
41 min: Isco and Ezzalzouli combine crisply down the inside-left channel. Isco prepares to take up the wall pass only to be scythed from behind by Caicedo. It’s a free kick in a dangerous position, five yards outside the box near the left-hand corner. It probably should be a booking, but the referee’s allowing things to go this evening.
39 min: Caicedo chips cutely down the middle of the park and finds Palmer just inside the Betis box. Palmer tries to twist and guide a backwards header goalwards, but can’t get enough loop on his effort. Adrian is on point to claim calmly, but Natan hacks away instead. That latter action the first moment of panic in the Betis defence.
37 min: A flicked header down the left releases Isco into space. He’s got team-mates in the middle, but strangely hesitates, allowing Gusto to get back into position and block the route for a cross. Isco turns tail and there goes that momentum.
35 min: Neto hoicks an ambitious shot high and wide from a tight angle on the right.
34 min: Isco, Cardoso and Ezzalzouli juggle their way down the left touchline. Every pass completed in a tight space. Isco then shovels a long ball down the flank, but Ezzalzouli doesn’t bother going for it, because Jorgensen has read the danger and comes out of his box to clean up.
32 min: Madueke wins a corner down the left, but nothing comes of it. They’ve still to work Adrian, but there’s a sense of their getting a foothold in the game at long last.
31 min: Ezzalzouli is a constant menace. He scampers past Gusto down the left again, but this time the defender fights back and extends a leg to deflect the ball out for a corner. From the set piece, Chelsea try to launch a counter, and they’ve got more men in their attack than Betis have defenders on point, but the bounce of the ball never quite falls for them, and they’re unable to piece a move together. Betis regroup.
29 min: A better ball out from Badiashile this time, as he breaks the lines and releases Fernandez into space down the left. The ball’s shuttled further left to Madueke, who gets a cross in, but Jackson’s heavy touch puts an end to the move. Better from Chelsea, though.
27 min: Madueke drops a shoulder in the hope of skating past Sabaly down the left, but the Betis defender sticks to him like glue. Madueke is forced to turn tail. Adrian hasn’t had anything to do yet.
25 min: Betis pounce on another loose Chelsea pass out from the back, this time from Badiashile. The ever-dangerous Ezzalzouli is fed down the left. He fizzes a low cross into the mixer. It just evades Cardoso and Bakambu, and Cucurella is able to mop up. But Chelsea are living very dangerously here.
