When Pellegrini was in charge of West Ham in 2018-19, he took the Italian under his wing and showed him what it was like to manage a Premier League team. Maresca “paid back” his mentor on Thursday night in Wroclaw, lifting the Conference League Cup at the expense of Real Betis.
It's a bit of a shame, because it would be a story about the first ever Chilean coach to win a European trophy, and also the oldest coach to ever win a cup competition. We can only wait until next year, when the legendary coach, born in 1953, might win the Europa League trophy.
"We have to start from scratch next season, build a team that is as competitive as possible in the Europa League and LaLiga. I think reaching this final was deserved. We are left with the bitterness of this match," said the 71-year-old, who has been working at Sevilla for five years.
Sixth place in LaLiga will not allow Betis to play in the Champions League, but Chelsea will return to it. In Wrocław we witnessed an event that is called - an English club is the first on the continent to complete all six international trophies.
Maresca's kids did it with some difficulty, they needed the more experienced Reece James and Jadon Sancho to come on after the break (and they are both only 25 years old), they were the ones who gave the signal to storm the positions of the team from Seville, who presented themselves as impressively as their fans at Tarczyński Arena.
Team spirit Chelsea The Chelsea captain unexpectedly started the final on the bench, but in a post-match interview he insisted that he was not offended at all. "We are one team and I do what the coach wants me to do," said James, while Maresca admitted at a press conference that team spirit is what makes his team strong. "Look at the behaviour of those I replaced. It was Gusto and Badiashile who were the happiest when they scored goals," he said.
The Italian’s unity building was also evident in his decision to send not only the star player Cole Palmer to the press conference, but also Tosin Adarabioyo, who didn’t even enter the pitch for a minute. His presence came in handy when his nonchalant colleague left the player of the match trophy on the table. The London-born player of Nigerian descent scooped it up when Palmer agreed to sign a few autographs, and he carried it to the changing room, triumphantly raising it in the air.
Chelsea players celebrate winning the Conference League (Photo: PAP/Paweł Jaskółka) Palmer's emotional distance and reserve in his statements are traits that are widely known on the Isles, and in Wrocław the 23-year-old Englishman, who recorded the key assists in the 4-1 result, worked hard to maintain this image.
"The first time I saw Fernandez in the penalty area, the second time I saw Jackson, so I passed the ball to them. And that was it," he shrugged when asked about his contribution to the victory.
Maresca made up for him. "He's a great player, he sees a lot on the pitch. He's had some tough moments this season, but they've made him an even better player," he said.
Chelsea's Cole Palmer and Real Betis player Isco - the two best players of the Conference League final in Wrocław (Photo: PAP/Jakub Kaczmarczyk) Palmer was overshadowed by Isco in the first half. The former Real Madrid player played a great game, providing a fantastic assist for Abde Ezzalzoula's goal, but the 23-year-old forward had to leave the pitch with an injury just after the break, and Betis' attack suffered greatly. Although Antony, on loan from Manchester United, also played well, he was not outstanding. The club from Seville still does not have a single European trophy in its cabinet.
"We were better until half-time, we scored a goal and had a few chances. The second half was marked by injuries to Ricardo Rozdriguez and Abde Ezzalzouli. They caused us problems on the left and with two goals they turned the tables in a few minutes," said the Chilean coach.
It's time for the Club World Championship Maresca, who half-jokingly and half-seriously calls Pellegrini his "professional father", has once again thumbed his nose at Betis fans. They have hated the Italian since he scored the decisive goal in the derby match 20 years ago as a Sevilla FC player. When asked how important the victory in Wrocław was, he answered with eloquence: "If you play in a competition, it's to win it. You can't build a winning mentality in your players without winning. We couldn't win the Champions League and the Europa League because we didn't play in them," he said.
One of the English journalists seized on that last sentence and asked: so next season the goal will be to win the Champions League? "You won't talk me into such declarations," the Chelsea coach replied. Then he sighed loudly when he got the next question - about the goal with which his team will enter the Club World Cup.
"We will take it game by game, step by step. We have a tough season behind us, we played 38 games in the league, which is the most difficult in the world. Remember also that we started our appearances in the Conference League from the play-off phase, so there were really a lot of those games. Now we only have ten days to rest and we have to keep playing," he explained.
The tournament in the US, which starts in mid-June, will not feature the two best English teams currently, Liverpool and Arsenal, because the 32-man squad was assembled last year based on historical results. Chelsea is reaping the rewards of winning the Champions League in 2021, and after rejuvenating its squad ("Last season we had the youngest in the history of the league in the UK," says Maresca), it has a renewed appetite for pushing ahead with the richest.
We also have something to be happy about. Legia and Jagiellonia reached the quarter-finals of the Conference League, and in addition, the Warsaw team has a scalp in the form of a victory over the eventual winner at Stamford Bridge. And the Białystok team does not end their adventure empty-handed - the scorer of seven goals, Cedric Bakambu, did not find the net in Wrocław, and thus the Angolan striker of Jagi Afimico Pululu, with eight goals, became the top scorer of the LK.
Cup numbers 10 — Chelsea's international trophies: the Champions League, Europa League, Cup Winners' Cup and European Super Cup twice each, the Club World Cup and the Conference League once each.
8 – that is how many goals Afimico Pululu scored in the Conference League and became the competition's top scorer. The Angolan striker of Jagiellonia Białystok overtook Cedric Bakambu of Real Betis, who scored seven goals, and Marc Guiu of Chelsea and Armandas Kucys of Celje, who scored six goals each.
