At half-time in the Stamford Bridge press room it felt like a live question: Did that Chelsea showing make you more or less confident that they will win the Conference League? Zero shot attempts, on or off target, from the home side in the first 45 minutes. Startlingly little football of any kind played over the halfway line. Half-hearted pressing, hapless passing.
Copenhagen comfortable in their own defensive third and increasingly confident moving the ball nearer to the Chelsea goal, their notorious defensive line of five frequently becoming a line of three as their wing-backs surged upfield, untracked by Chelsea’s wingers. Advertisement It is reasonable to wonder if any team could maintain genuine ambitions of winning a tournament while showing so little. Yet in spite of it all, there was no sense of real jeopardy.
Chelsea were harassed into errors in their own defensive third by Copenhagen’s aggressive press but Filip Jorgensen was never seriously tested. Standing in his technical area, Enzo Maresca frequently betrayed annoyance at what he was seeing, but never genuine fear that a quarter-final place was at risk. This game, perhaps more than any other that Chelsea have played in the Conference League, exposed just how huge their margin for error is against this calibre of opposition.
Copenhagen are an above average team for this level, and regular European participants. According to Transfermarkt their squad value this season is €77.6million, the fifth-highest in th.
