Chelsea aim higher after Conference League triumph, Messi-Suarez score twice

The Uefa Conference League was not where Chelsea wanted to be, but their triumph in Wroclaw could prove to be a turning point for a club that had lost their trophy-winning habit.

The Premier League team beat Real Betis 4-1 on Wednesday, recovering strongly from being outplayed in the first half by their Spanish opponents.

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca's second-half substitutions lifted his team but an inspired Cole Palmer was the catalyst for victory, producing two pinpoint crosses for Enzo Fernandez and Nicolas Jackson.

Jadon Sancho's fine finish made it 3-1 and Moises Caicedo added a fourth in stoppage time to give Chelsea their first silverware since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital acquired the club in May 2022 from Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

During the past three years the owners have spent more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) on promising young talent, but until now have had little to show for it.

Chelsea had been clear favourites to win Europe's third-tier club competition from the start, enabling Maresca to field youth and fringe players.

They rampaged through the group phase, outclassing teams with a fraction of their resources such as Noah, Astana and Shamrock Rovers.

Maresca spoke on the eve of the final in Poland about how he had stressed the importance of the Conference League to his players.

He will not need to persuade them next season as they are back where they feel they belong, the Champions League, following a fourth-place finish in the Premier League.

'WINNING MENTALITY'

Maresca, in his first season at Stamford Bridge, said he hoped winning the Conference League would be a launchpad for bigger and better.

"Hopefully, it can be a starting point to build a winning mentality," he said. "You need to win games. You need to win competitions.

"And for sure, the trophy we won tonight is going to make us better. But also, I'm very proud about the path or the journey we have done in the Premier League.

"For me, it's the most difficult competition in the world. You have to be consistent in 38 games. And these players, they showed it."

Maresca had a rollercoaster first season after replacing Mauricio Pochettino.

His team were within touching distance of eventual Premier League champions Liverpool in mid-December before stumbling badly.

But they found an extra gear towards the end of the campaign, negotiating a tricky run-in to finish in the Champions League spots.

"For sure, we have improved a lot since we started," said former Leicester boss Maresca. "We also start to win games in an ugly way.

"That is something with a young squad that you struggle to do that."

The Italian has been keen to highlight the extreme youth of his expensively assembled squad.

The average age of his starting side was the youngest in a single Premier League campaign.

Under Abramovich, Chelsea became serial trophy winners, claiming five Premier League titles and winning the Champions League twice.

It is too early to predict whether they will return to those heady heights but the Conference League is a start.

Next on the agenda is a trip to the Club World Cup in the United States, for which Chelsea qualified by winning the 2021 Champions League.

"Now we have 10 days off, 10 days where we need to recover energy, and then we're going to start the Club World Cup," said Maresca.

"The target is to go game by game, try to go step by step, but at this moment we don't have any target for the Club World Cup.

"Now the only target is to recover energy, because the season has been very long."

MESSI AND SUAREZ EACH SCORE TWICE AS MIAMI RIPS MONTREAL

Elsewhere, Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez each scored two goals to spark Inter Miami to a 4-2 Major League Soccer victory over visiting Montreal on Wednesday.

Argentine superstar Messi opened the scoring in the 27th minute and assisted on Suarez's first goal in the 68th minute for a 2-0 edge.

Uruguayan star Suarez scored again in the 71st minute before Montreal's Dante Sealy answered in the 74th minute.

Messi struck again in the 87th minute before Victor Loturi pulled one back from the Canadian club two minutes into stoppage time.

Miami jumped to sixth in the Eastern Conference with seven wins and five drawn from 15 matches while East doormat Montreal slid to 1-10 with five drawn.

Miami had lost twice and drawn twice in the past four matches.

"We had to take responsibility for the poor results. It's a matter of correcting to regain confidence," said Suarez, who added the victory "means a lot ... We have to continue to gain confidence in this kind of game."

Inter coach Javier Mascherano was concerned about injuries to defenders Gonzalo Lujan, Tomas Aviles and Jordi Alba.

"We needed to cut the negative dynamic. I'm happy," he said.

"Unfortunately (the victory) is tarnished by the departure of Gonzalo, Jordi and Toto.

"In the case of Gonzalo and Jordi it was something muscular, which tomorrow we will see how far it is. In the case of 'Toto' it was the ankle that swelled in a stomp. Maybe he could continue. He wanted to continue."

Overall league leader Philadelphia won 2-1 at Toronto as the Union rallied late after Norway's Ola Brynhildsen scored in the 75th minute.

Nathan Harriel netted the equalizer for the Union in the 86th minute and Germany's Kai Wagner scored the game winner two minutes into stoppage time.

The Union improved to 10-3-3 for a league-high 33 points while none of the three clubs just behind them on the table could manage full points, second-place Cincinnati drawing 3-3 with visiting Dallas and third-place Nashville drawing 2-2 at fourth-place Columbus.