Written by Paul Michael Ezeoha
The fourth ever UEFA Conference League final is set to go down on today's night in Wroclaw, Poland. This tie would see English club, Chelsea FC, go up against Spanish sides, Real Betis Balompie.
Both teams' fate for next season's UEFA competitions have been sealed, with the Blues guaranteed to play in next season's Champions League for the first time since 2022/2023 season, and Betis' securing a spot in the UEFA Europa League for next season. So, for these two sides, it's not a quest to win the Conference League in order to participate in UEFA's competition next season. No, it's not.
It's something different.
For Chelsea, it's a quest to make history by becoming the first club to win all three of UEFA's competitions, given the fact that they already have both the Europa League and the Champions League in their cabinet.
Conversely, for Real Betis, it's a quest to lift their first ever UEFA competition.
Therefore, this tie is a clash of two immensely ambitious teams. So, we are set to witness a very intriguing final.
So, a succinct analysis of both teams is given below.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Real Betis and Chelsea have only encountered each other once, and it occurred in the group stage of 2005/2006 campaign of the UEFA Champions League. The first leg played in Stanford Bridge ended in a 4-0 trashing of Betis by the home side. In this tie, the Blues had 4 different goal scorers in the persons of Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, Hernan Crespo and Jole Cole. The second leg at Betis' turf ended in a 1-0 win for the Andalusian side.
PERFORMANCES IN THE CONFERENCE LEAGUE
Chelsea have had an excellent spell in this competition so far. They played a total of 14 matches prior to this final :2 in the League phase playoff 6 in both the league and the knockout phases. Out of these fixtures, they won a whopping 12 games, while only losing twice. In these ties, they had very impressive stats. Per game, they recorded an average percentage of 64.57 of ball possession, 16.14 total shots with 7.5 shots being on target and 2.36 expected goal (EX) ratio.
Real Betis on the other hand also had good performance in this competition. They played 16 matches in total: 2 in both the league phase and knockout stage playoffs, and 6 in both the league and knockout phases. Out of these matches, they won 9, lost 3 and drew 4. Also, their average stats per game are given: 54. 43% of ball possession, 17. 19 total shots on goal, 6.31 shots on target and 1.64 expected goal ratio.
After comparing both teams' stats given above, we arrived at a conclusion that Chelsea have had slightly better performance than their Spanish opponent so far in this competition. Although Chelsea happens to have a better overall performance, the stats says that Real Betis have created more chances than them, given their higher total shot ratio, but they do come short in terms of conversion rate, given their lower EX ratio compared to Chelsea's.
TEAM NEWS
Based on the squad list released by Chelsea on their official social media handle, the Blues have a complete squad going into this tie, with only few of their first team players ruled out for this final. Only Romeo Latvia, who wasn't registered with the team for the Conference League, Wesley Fofana, who is still injured, and Mykhailo Mudryk, who has been ban from professional football since November 2024 after he was tested positive of having unlawful substance meldonium in his body system.
Real Betis would be without some key players like Hector Bellerin, Chimmy Avilla, Diego Llorente, William Carvalho, Marc Rocca and Cucho Hernandez. These absentees could pose some difficulties for the Andalusian based outfits in this final.
CONCLUSION
From the stats given above, it could be said that Chelsea are the favourites to win this final. But, as we've witnessed in countless occasions in the past, football can produce some shocking results. And this is just one special nature of the sport, a cachet that we all love to witness.
As always, you are on point 🙌
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