Chelsea defy pitch and crowd to put Conference League tie to bed in another European mismatch | OneFootball

Competition was not intended for clubs of Chelsea size and Enzo Maresca’s side continue to make most of obvious advantage

A dodgy surface and a rocking home crowd, but Chelsea just about pitch perfect on the road in Europe.

There was the obligatory early goal, scored by Jadon Sancho to silence - figuratively, if not literally - the home support, then a sucker-punch second from Noni Madueke on the stroke of half-time.

Then, after Djurgarden had threatened a revival with a fast start to the second period, came a countering clincher, poked in by Nicolas Jackson, part of quadruple substitution at the interval that was a brutal show of Chelsea strength.

Jackson would score again, taking his tally to a welcome three goals in two games after four months without one. Substitute Isak Alemayehu Mulugeta’s consolation does nothing to change the complexion of a tie that is dead.

The ease of Chelsea’s victory felt almost cruel, given, frankly, how much more reaching the final of this competition would mean to opponents of the calibre for which it was intended.

Given Chelsea’s season will ultimately be defined by their push for Champions League qualification it is debatable which was even the more important result of the night: theirs here in Stockholm, or Brentford’s win at Nottingham Forest.

Chelsea’s march to final in Wroclaw has appeared inevitable all season

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But if the Blues are not in this competition by design, then nor are they in it to make friends. Maresca came as close as he has on Wednesday to admitting what we have all been certain of for some time: that anything but victory in next month’s Polish final would be failure from here.

As much they are on a hiding to nothing every time they kick a ball in this competition, however, Chelsea deserve credit for continuing to make each encounter look like the mismatch that it is.

There have been no real scares or wobbles of note, and after the sloppy, if inconsequential, second-leg defeat at home to Legia Warsaw last time out, this was a suitably ruthless response.

Still, it felt odd that a game at this stage of any competition could come with senses of occasion and anticipation so different to each of the competing clubs.

Though Maresca had insisted that his team would take each game on its merits and nothing for granted, twin concerns with the state of the pitch and the challenge of facing Liverpool on Sunday were reflected in the Italian’s team selection. There were eight changes from Saturday’s win over Everton, with Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Moises Caicedo, Levi Colwill and Jackson among those left on the bench.

For Djurgarden, however, this was a first ever European semi-final and the first for any Swedish side in 37 years. On a bank holiday - Labour Day - here in the nation’s capital, 25,000 came ready to make it count.

Lying empty, the 3Arena does not feel like a stadium waiting to erupt. It is grey, modern and soulless, named for a telecoms giant, owned by the city council and shared by two clubs when it isn’t hosting reunion concerts for Swedish alt-rock band Kent.

From an hour before kick-off, though, it came to life, an energy flowing from the ultras’s end and surging along the two-tone blue scarves that spanned the entire bowl by the time the teams emerged. The crescendo, a full-blooded, firework-infused adaptation of ‘Hey Jude’, was oddly fearsome stuff.

So ceaselessly boisterous was the atmosphere that you really did wonder this might just be a night a little different to those Chelsea had strolled through before.

Against the din, you forgot that this was only the 11th best team in Sweden on current form, with a squad - as one local journalist had calculated and put to Maresca on Wednesday evening - worth 44 times less than that of their illustrious opposition.

If one reminder of reality came in the shape of Chelsea’s 2-0 half-time lead, then another as Maresca sent Caicedo, Palmer, Jackson and Trevor Chalobah on at the break. Despite the latter coming through the Cobham youth academy, the cavalry still had a combined cost of more than £180million.

The final change brought a late debut for 16-year-old Reggie Walsh, the youngest to turn out for Chelsea since 1967. He very nearly scored with his first touch.

A Palmer goal was probably the one thing missing from Maresca’s wishlist on the night, though he would probably have taken his talisman’s drought running through an 18th game in exchange for his players coming off the plastic pitch with a clean bill of health.