Manuel Pellegrini got off to the perfect start and opened the scoring in the ninth minute thanks to a goal from Abde Ezzalzouli to make it 1-0.

The Spanish outfit took a one-goal lead as the game went into the half-time break.

The Blues drew the game level five minutes after the hour mark when Enzo Fernandez headed home an inviting ball by Cole Palmer.

Palmer grabbed another assist five minutes later when he played a cross into the box for Nicolas Jackson, who put the ball into the net.

Chelsea added a third goal in the 83rd minute when substitute Jadon Sancho beat his man to curl the ball into the far corner.

Enzo Maresca’s side put the game beyond Betis when Moises Caicedo found the back of the net from a shot from outside the box to complete Chelsea’s comeback and to ensure the victory.

The Blues have now made history by becoming the only team to have won every European trophy on offer.

WATCH: Real Betis vs Chelsea

The post Chelsea crowned Conference League champions appeared first on SportsClub.

Mykhailo Mudryk’s cross was headed in by defender Renato Veiga in the 12th minute to open the scoring.

Just 49 seconds after halftime, Pedro Neto, a winger, scored a close-range goal after Axel Disasi’s long ball down the middle.

Gent could have thought they were back in the game for a little period of time when defender Tsuyoshi Watanabe’s header in the 50th minute overcame the video assistance referee’s check for offside.

However, the happiness didn’t last long for the Belgian travellers.

Thirteen minutes later, goalie Davy Roef was beaten by a low shot from versatile attacker Christopher Nkunku, who had scored his eighth goal of the season.

After Watanabe was unable to clear, midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who had wasted a fantastic opportunity in the first half, finished.

Omri Gandelman scored a late consolation goal to make up for some shoddy Chelsea left-wing defence.

With an entirely different starting lineup from the one that defeated Brighton 4-2 in the Premier League last Saturday, the performance showcased Chelsea’s formidable depth, but it also highlighted the disparity in resources between some of the teams participating in Europe’s third division.

This season, the Conference League will include a new 36-team league phase. Chelsea is attempting to secure a spot in the knockout rounds by finishing in the top eight.

But their ultimate goal in the competition is to be the first side to win the Conference League in addition to their prior Champions League and Europa League crowns.

The post Chelsea stroll past Gent in Conference League appeared first on SportsClub.

In the 116th minute, Moroccan forward Ayoub El Kaabi scored the game-winning goal, enabling Jose Luis Mendilibar’s team to create history at home against AEK Athens.

Panathinaikos, the only Greek team to reach a European final before Olympiakos’ achievement, was defeated by an Ajax team led by Johan Cruyff in the 1971 European Cup final.

Both teams came out firing, with Daniel Podence forcing Fiorentina custodian Pietro Terracciano into a superb save and Andrea Belotti missing his kick when he had a decent chance at the opposite end.

After nine minutes, Fiorentina thought they had grabbed the lead, but Nikola Milenkovic’s header past Olympiakos’ Konstantinos Tzolakis was promptly called for offside.

Fiorentina had the best of the first-half chances, but Nicolas Gonzalez mistimed his volley when well-positioned, and Greek goalie Tzolakis made a wonderful stop at the feet of Giacomo Bonaventura shortly after.

The second half saw a decline in shots on goal, but in minute 69, Tzolakis saved Olympiakos once more, making a smart adjustment to leap backward and block Christian Kouame’s scuffed, bouncing attempt.

In the final ten minutes, experienced Olympiakos forward Vicente Iborra came dangerously close to breaking the deadlock with a header from a free-kick that went just wide of the Fiorentina goal.

However, as the game finally drifted into extra time, this was the last meaningful opportunity of regulation time.

Four minutes into extra time, Olympiakos made a fruitless attempt to get a penalty kick, but the referee determined that the defender’s arm was in a natural position when Stevan Jovetic’s cross hit it just inside the box.

A minute later, just as the game appeared to be picking up steam again, former Fiorentina legend Jovetic, who had come on from the Olympiakos bench, forced a fine save from Terracciano with a curling 20-yard strike.

But after that, the teams were unwilling to take a chance that could cost them the draw, and the game tightened up once more.

Penalties looked inevitable until El Kaabi bent down to head in Santiago Hezze’s cross for his 16th goal of the season in European competition in the 116th minute.

When El Kaabi’s goal was confirmed in the 120th minute after a protracted VAR review, the majority Greek fans in Athens let it be known how much the game meant to the team.

“Amazing. For Olympiakos and me. Really proud of my guys. We did great all year and deserved it,” Jovetic said to TNT Sports.

The celebration in Olympiakos’ hometown of Athens tonight, the attacker from Montenegro continued, “will be amazing”.

After falling to West Ham 2-1 in 2023 following Jarrod Bowen’s 90-minute game-winning goal, Fiorentina faced elimination in two straight Europa Conference League finals.

“I have to compliment Fiorentina, two years in a row. A shame for them,” added Jovetic, who played for the Tuscan side from 2008-2013.

Photo by EPA/ACHILLEAS CHIRAS

The post Olympiakos win Europa Conference League appeared first on SportsClub.

West Ham won the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup 58 years ago with a team that included England World Cup stars Bobby Moore and Geoff Hurst. This is their second European trophy.

Bowen took a great through ball from Lucas Paqueta and shot low past Fiorentina goalie Pietro Terracciano, who couldn’t do anything.

“I obviously dreamed of scoring but to score the winner in the last minute. It’s what you always say you want to do,” Bowen told BT Sport.

“To do it in front of these fans. I thought I was going to cry. I’m just happy.”

West Ham scored first in Prague when Said Benrahma blasted a penalty past Terracciano after VAR showed that Cristiano Biraghi had touched the ball while trying to stop Bowen in the box.

Five minutes later, Giacomo Bonaventura tied the game with a low right-footed shot that beat West Ham keeper Alphonse Areola.

Bonaventura took advantage of Nicolas Gonzalez’s great header back after he had jumped over West Ham’s fullback Emerson.

The winner’s name will be the second ever to be on the Conference League trophy. Last year’s winner, Roma, was the first team to win the competition.

With the win, West Ham also earned a spot in the Europa League for next season. Fiorentina, on the other hand, didn’t do well enough in the Serie A to qualify for European play.

West Ham’s last big trophy was the FA Cup, which they won in 1980.

They spent most of last season fighting to stay in the Premier League. In the end, they came in 14th place.

“We had a dream, we haven’t had the best season, myself included, but to give these fans this moment, I’m over the moon,” Bowen said.

“This is the biggest game of my career. The emotion, there was time for one more chance. I’m just so happy.”

The game started slowly, but Michail Antonio tested Terracciano with a low shot at the 40-second mark.

In a mostly boring first half, Fiorentina had more of the ball and looked more organised.

But they didn’t get close until Christian Kouame hit the post with his head after Gonzalez’s cross.

Then, Fiorentina striker Luka Jovic tapped the ball over the line after it bounced back, but his goal was called back because he was out of position.

The best chance for the Hammers in the first half was a shot from outside the box by Declan Rice in the 13th minute. The ball just missed the post.

Rice may have played his last game for the East Londoners because Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United are all interested in signing him.

When both teams scored, the game changed. Suddenly, they were much more active, getting corners and making chances.

But Rolando Mandragora’s shot went just wide, and Areola stopped Sofyan Amrabat. Tomas Soucek’s header was saved by a diving Terracciano.

Before the game, police in Prague said that they had arrested 16 people after fans of Fiorentina attacked fans of West Ham in a bar in the centre of the city. Three people got small cuts and bruises.

Photo by EPA/MARTIN DIVISEK

The post West Ham beat Fiorentina to lift Europa Conference League appeared first on SportsClub.

Italy international Zaniolo struck with a well-taken finish in the 32nd minute to earn Roma their first trophy of any kind since 2008 and cap a successful first season for coach Jose Mourinho in Rome.

Report: Mourinho guides Roma to Europa Conference League title

The post Highlights: Zaniolo fires Roma to Conference League triumph over Feyenoord appeared first on SportsClub.

Italy international Zaniolo struck with a well-taken finish in the 32nd minute to earn Roma their first trophy of any kind since 2008 and cap a successful first season for coach Jose Mourinho in Rome.

“It was a real struggle but I’m really happy,” Zaniolo said to Sky.

“It was my dream and now I’ve done it.”

Mourinho’s team rode their luck, with Feyenoord having the lion’s share of the play and twice striking the woodwork in the second half.

But they remained solid in the face of Dutch dominance and brought joy to one of Europe’s most passionate and success-starved fanbases.

Over 50,000 fans packed the Stadio Olimpico in the Italian capital to watch their team make a little piece of history in Albania.

Meanwhile, the small corner of supporters allowed into Tirana’s National Stadium roared with delight once referee Istvan Kovacs blew his whistle to end their team’s trophy drought.

For 1970 European champions Feyenoord it was their first-ever defeat in a European final as well as being the first loss in the competition for Arne Slot’s team.

The post AS Roma crowned Europa Conference League champions appeared first on SportsClub.

Abraham smashed home a powerful header in the 11th minute at a bouncing Stadio Olimpico in Rome to give Jose Mourinho’s team their first European final in more than three decades, the first of the new competition.

They await Feyenoord in Tirana, Albania on May 25 after the Dutch side prevailed 3-2 in the other semi-final, and they will be backed by an army of supporters who got behind their team in stirring fashion.

Roma fans haven’t seen their team win a trophy since 2008 and the roar let out at the final whistle was one of massive relief after spending much of the match on the back foot against the Foxes, themselves gunning for a first major continental final.

Brendan Rodgers’ team ran into ground against a typically well-organised Mourinho side who were content to let Leicester do the running and try to pick the away side off on the break once their aggregate advantage was established early on.

Roma’s last European final — in the old UEFA Cup — was lost to Inter Milan in 1991 and the pre-match atmosphere was as feverish as could be expected for one of Europe’s most passionate and long-suffering fan bases.

A crowd of 65,000 had already been whipped up by a strong start for the home team when Abraham almost brought the roof off, meeting Lorenzo Pellegrini’s corner with a header that flew past Kasper Schmeichel.

The England international’s goal was just reward for Roma’s enterprising start which featured smart Schmeichel stops but as the half wore on Leicester shook off the cobwebs and started to get a foothold.

From there the match settled into a pattern of Leicester trying to push past a well-organised Roma rearguard, initially without success as the away side didn’t have a single shot on target in the opening period.

Leicester’s first effort on target didn’t come until 11 minutes from the end, when James Maddison’s low dive was easily collected by Rui Patricio and after that the hosts had some decent opportunities themselves.

The impressive Nicola Zalewski had a decent shot charged down when a cross was deflected into his path and Roma began to gain some ground as Leicester tired from their ineffective efforts.

Leicester pushed for a leveller but as the whistles reached ear-splitting levels Roma held strong and once Pellegrini’s long range effort was fumbled out for a corner the hosts knew they had done enough to write another chapter in the history of the Italian capital.

The post Abraham fires Roma past Leicester into Conference League final appeared first on SportsClub.

Mancini got the final touch midway through the second half as he tried to stop Ademola Lookman turning in a low ball driven into the six-yard box by Harvey Barnes.

That brought Leicester level in their first ever European semi-final after Lorenzo Pellegrini had given Roma an early lead at the King Power Stadium.

The tie, which pits Mourinho against Brendan Rodgers, his one-time protege on the coaching staff at Chelsea, is now poised ahead of next week’s return in Italy.

Mourinho is hoping to add the new third-tier European trophy to his collection having won two Champions Leagues, a UEFA Cup and a Europa League during his managerial career, and Roma could not have asked for a better start.

They went ahead on the quarter-hour mark when Nicola Zalewski collected the ball on the left and powered forward before playing in captain Pellegrini to fire low past Kasper Schmeichel in the Leicester goal.

Last season’s FA Cup winners, who dropped into the Conference League after going out of the Europa League in the group stage, were then dealt a blow as Timothy Castagne was forced off midway through the first half.

Lookman tested goalkeeper Rui Patricio from range just after the half-hour mark but it was the second-half introduction of Barnes that proved crucial in getting the Premier League side back on level terms.

Barnes replaced Marc Albrighton at the same time Kelechi Iheanacho was sent on for Jamie Vardy, the veteran forward making his first start since early March following his latest injury setback.

It was Barnes who drove into the box before drilling a low ball in from the left side of the area towards Nigerian international Lookman. Italian international defender Mancini ended up helping the ball over the line to make it 1-1.

Rui Patricio then tipped an Iheanacho shot around the post and Leicester — whose former striker Gary Lineker was watching from the stands — will have to find a way of winning in Rome if they are to reach the final in the Albanian capital Tirana at the end of next month.

– Dessers double fires Feyenoord –
Feyenoord beat Marseille 3-2 in Rotterdam, throwing away a two-goal lead before being gifted what proved to be the winner on the night right at the start of the second half.

Colombian forward Luis Sinisterra laid the ball off for Cyriel Dessers to open the scoring for the Dutch side in the 18th minute, and Sinisterra doubled their lead just two minutes later, sweeping home from a Reiss Nelson assist with his shot deflecting in off Valentin Rongier.

In a remarkable game between two former European Cup winners, Marseille pulled a goal back in the 28th minute when Cedric Bakambu played a ball into the path of Bamba Dieng and the Senegal striker smashed in a shot from just outside the area.

The French visitors were level five minutes before half-time when Matteo Guendouzi’s low cross into the box from the right was turned out by Feyenoord goalkeeper Ofir Marciano and Brazil midfielder Gerson arrived to smash in the loose ball.

Yet, in a raucous atmosphere at De Kuip, Feyenoord went back in front just 11 seconds into the second half as Duje Caleta-Car’s short backpass was intercepted by Dessers and the Belgian-born Nigerian international snapped up the chance.

Marseille must now overturn the deficit when the teams meet again at the Velodrome next Thursday.

©Europa Conference League Twitter Page

The post Feyenoord edge Marseille, Leicester earn Roma draw appeared first on SportsClub.

Spurs were handed a 3-0 defeat for their final group stage match against Rennes after the match was postponed due to a wave of positive coronavirus cases among Tottenham players and staff.

A new date before the deadline of December 31 could then not be agreed between the clubs.

Tottenham had needed to win their final game against the French side, who had already secured top spot in the group, to progress ahead of Vitesse Arnhem.

“It is not definitive, but there is another step to confirm or not this incredible decision,” Conte said on Tuesday.

“We are very, very confident for the next step and I repeat we deserve to play the qualification on the pitch, not in the court.

“I can’t accept this. We are very, very disappointed with UEFA for this decision.”

Should Spurs fail to overturn that decision, one chance for Conte to end the club’s trophy drought stretching back to 2008 will have gone.

But the Italian has another opportunity in the League Cup with Wednesday’s quarter-final against West Ham to go ahead despite rising Covid case numbers across London that have forced mayor Sadiq Khan to declare a “major incident” in the English capital.

“To win trophies is always important but I think in this moment, at this period for Tottenham, it’s more good to think it’s time to rebuild something important,” added Conte, who only joined the club last month.

“If you ask me if trophies are important, they are for every club.

“For me it’s important to build a solid base, a foundation, to have a team in a short period who can be competitive, to fight for all competitions and fight for all competitions you play.”

Conte confirmed Spurs no longer have any positive Covid cases in their camp.

The post Conte says Spurs may appeal against UEFA’s decision to award Rennes win appeared first on SportsClub.

Spurs boss Antonio Conte on Wednesday afternoon revealed eight players and five members of staff had tested positive for coronavirus and said the outbreak has left everyone scared and worried for their families.

A club statement on Wednesday night said: “We can confirm that our UEFA Europa Conference League Group G home fixture against Stade Rennais will not take place tomorrow [Thursday December 9 at 8pm UK] after a number of positive Covid-19 cases at the club.

“Discussions are ongoing with UEFA and we shall provide a further update on this fixture in due course.

“Additionally, following discussions with the Health Security Agency [formerly Public Health England] and DCMS advisers, the club has been advised to close the first team area of its training centre at this time, in the interests of the health and safety of players and staff.

“All other areas of the training centre remain operational.”

Spurs had been expected to have to play their crunch European game against Rennes, with Uefa having strict regulations regarding the minimum number of players available which must be met if possible.

It remains unclear whether Spurs will ask for their Premier League match at Brighton on Sunday to be postponed, but a clearly emotional Conte admitted the situation was almost impossible.

“The problem is that every day we are having people with Covid,” Conte said at a media conference, which was held virtually rather than in person at the club’s Hotspur Way training centre.

“People that yesterday weren’t positive, today were positive and we continue to have contact with people we think are negative but the day after become positive. I think this is a serious problem.

“The worst is we don’t know and we continue to have contact with people that the day before were negative. For sure this is not a good situation.

“At the end of the training session today, again one player positive. Another member of staff is positive.

“Tomorrow, who [will it be]? Me? Another player? Another member of staff? And we continue in this way.”

Conte was supposed to be joined by Spurs’ Danish midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at the pre-match conference, but instead faced the media on his own.

The Italian was asked whether their upcoming games should be called off in the wake of the outbreak.

“I think that I haven’t [got] to send a message to anyone because the situation is very clear,” Conte said.

“Every day we are having contact with the people that are false negative and become positive and then everyone is a bit scared, I think, because we all have family and why I have to take this risk?”

The Spurs boss added: “I think that it is not right for everyone because we have family and we have contact with them when we come back home.

“The situation is serious and it is contagious and there is a big infection and now for sure we are a bit scared because tomorrow we don’t know what happens.

“I understand also the [worry for the] players and I understand everyone that works here.”

Conte was not able to confirm whether it was the Omicron variant at the centre of the outbreak, but revealed he had been vaccinated.

Referring to vaccination take-up within his squad, the Spurs boss said: “I think everyone takes [their own] best decision and it is a question for the medical department about people that whether they are vaccinated or not.”

The Rennes postponement presents Uefa with a major headache over the rescheduling of the game.

Rennes are top of Group G while Spurs are level on points with third-placed Dutch club Vitesse.

Uefa rules stipulate that a team needs to have fewer than 13 available players or no registered goalkeeper available for the fixture to be called off.

Conte had said: “Today we prepared the game against Rennes, we prepared with one player who we think we should play, then we finish training and this player was positive.

“It is very difficult to speak about football because the situation is so strange and incredible. It is very impossible.”

Given the worsening situation, Tottenham could consider asking the Premier League to call off the Brighton game.

The league works on a case-by-case basis and if a club does request a game to be postponed, it would be a Premier League board decision.

Last season, Spurs saw matches against Aston Villa and Fulham called off due to Covid-19 outbreaks within the opposition camp.

The post Tottenham vs Rennes off after Covid-19 outbreak, say Spurs appeared first on SportsClub.