Chelsea stroll past Djugarden to seal place in UEFA Conference League final

An oddly fitting semi-final for the oddest of European campaigns. sealed their ticket to Wroclaw for the Conference League final later month without having to break a sweat in the second leg of a tie that was effectively put to bed by winning 4-1 away to Djurgarden a week ago.

And the lasting memory of this strange evening at Stamford Bridge had nothing to do with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s fine finish or the sight of academy products Reggie Walsh and Shumaira Mheuka settling into first team life.

Instead it was all about the Djurgarden fans, already beaten but never to be silenced, who had arrived for the biggest away game of their club’s history. Outside they were surrounded by a significant police presence and allowed in at about a dozen a time. Half an hour before kick off about a hundred or so who had gained entry via the home end charged towards their own fans and breached the segregation.

Then, as the game got underway, about a thousand of them in the posh seats of the West Stand’s upper tier - ordinarily reserved for corporate guests on a jolly - stood to attention and made it clear that they had successfully found their way in to witness a bit of history.

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They were loud, they were boisterous. There was no shortage of the usual hand gestures and a chant of “F*** you, f*** Chelsea” to no particular tune. But, inside the ground at least, there was no actual crossing the line into trouble.

And as the match huffed and puffed away it was hard not to think about how the Conference League was meant for the likes of Djurgarden - a chance for those from Europe’s smaller leagues (or those historically not at the top of the big leagues) to have a shot of success.

Except the mere presence of a club with Chelsea’s financial muscle, even if it has more often than not been the second string, strolling through this season is a stain on its still brief existence. Their path to the final has featured 42 goals in 14 games, a dozen wins and two defeats in the second legs of knockout ties in which they already held convincing leads.

Sure, Enzo Maresca has been able to give formative opportunities to talented players from the academy - and the opportunity to complete the set of European trophies will be nice.

But for those Chelsea fans who have been around a long time and experienced the highs and lows, will being Conference League champions mean the ?

For those less accustomed to silverware it would have.

Of course Chelsea deserve no blame whatsoever – their crime was merely qualifying fairly and squarely – but it has put a dampener on a competition that , Olympiacos and, to a slightly lesser extent, Roma had shown meant an awful lot.

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