Chelsea enjoy perfect night in quest for European history - and get Champions League boost

Swede dreams are made of this.

Jadon Sancho led Chelsea’s plastic platoon to the brink of a sixth European final since 2008 on an enchanted night when their hopes of football next season were fortified 1,300 miles away in Nottingham. On Djurgarden’s artificial pitch, the Blues didn’t just put their Europa Conference League semi-final to bed - they tucked the Swedish underdogs in and plumped up their pillows.

And their commanding performance did not suggest they will let the real grass grow under their feet in next week’s return leg. Sancho’s future at Stamford Bridge remains in doubt with yet to indicate whether they will turn his loan move from into a permanent transfer or tick the box marked ‘return to sender’ with a £5 million penalty clause.

But his early goal settled any nerves about the treacherous surface and kept Chelsea on course to compete a unique clean sweep of major European trophies. Back in Stockholm for the first time since Gianfranco Zola’s winner off the bench in the Cup Winners Cup final against Stuttgart 27 years ago, the Blues proved that Scandic fire and passion are no substitute for quality.

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Although Djurgarden are not one of European football’s big-hitters - their entire squad was assembled for £18.5 million and record signing Tobias Gulliksen cost just £3.8m - they have a special place in the stories of two England strikers. It’s where Supermac himself, Malcolm Macdonald, brought the curtain down on his career in 1979 and Teddy Sheringham, who is featured on the giant mural leading to the dressing rooms, enjoyed a fruitful loan spell as a 19-year-old.

Just because you’ve never heard of them doesn’t mean the Iron Stoves are Thursday night patsies like Herdy Gerdy Rovers or Smorgasbord Rangers. The 3Arena is a roaring fortress where the acoustics make your dentures rattle, but if Chelsea had misgivings about the synthetic shagpile, it took just 12 minutes for Sancho to administer the sedative.

Enzo Fernandez picked him out in generous space 10 yards out and Sancho smuggled his shot beyond home defender Marcus Danielson on the line, only his fourth goal of the season and his first in Europe for Chelsea. Noni Madueke should have doubled the Blues’ advantage when ’ deft chip left him in the clear, but Djurgarden keeper Jacob Rinne came to the rescue when the England forward should have buried it.

Two minutes before the break, however, Madueke made amends with a composed finish from the edge of the box, picking his spot from another Fernandez pass. Coach Enzo Maresca decided Chelsea were more comfortable than a Chesterfield armchair and afforded himself the luxury of a quadruple substitution at the interval.

One of the replacements, Nicolas Jackson, pounced on Rinne’s howler to make it 3-0, walking the ball into an empt net before firing left-footed into the top corner six minutes later. Maresca looked miffed when Djurgarden sub Isak Alemayeehu Mulugeta replied for the hosts midway through the second period, but the second leg should be a formality.

Head coach Maresca acclaimed a “perfect” night’s work, which included 16-year-old Reggie Walsh making a cameo debut from the bench - the club’s youngest player since 1967. Maresca said: “"It was the perfect night, an important semi-final and it is a good result.

“But we cannot drop, we cannot relax because otherwise it is complicated. We are going to arrive back in London at 5am in the morning and we have a game on Sunday so we need to recover the energy. Reggie is young, he looks very good, but he needs to continue to work and learn and grow."

And as if their night on the plastic tiles wasn't already perfect, news of slipping to another defeat will put extra pep in their flight back to the capital. That keeps the race for the Champions League alive, just as their Conference League pursuit moves into the home straight.

Goodnight Djurgarden, Swede dreams, lights out.

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