Chelsea finished the Conference League’s league phase with a perfect record after defeating Shamrock Rovers of the League of Ireland 5-1 at Stamford Bridge thanks to a hat-trick from Marc Guiu in the first half.
Despite not having yet to start for Enzo Maresca in the Premier League, the 18-year-old former Barcelona striker was chosen for the fourth time in Europe and showed a poacher’s instinct to bury the opposition, twice intercepting passes back to the goalkeeper to score before glancing in a beautiful header for his third.
Chelsea confirmed what had long been clear: they are much too strong for the clubs they have encountered in the first phase of Europe’s third competition. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Marc Cucurella also scored, the latter for the second time in as many games.
Shamrock’s loss was their first in Europe this season, but they departed west London with the remembrance of Markus Poom’s goal that gave them a chance to pull off a great upset and temporarily tied the score at 1-1 in the first half, as well as the consolation of a spot in the playoffs in February. Chelsea had over 80% of the ball for the first twenty-five minutes, but they had to make a defensive mistake to take the lead.
Tyrique George chased a looping ball that Renato Veiga hoofed ahead. Darragh Burns got there first, but Guiu was able to sneak in and put Chelsea ahead when his wildly misdirected header back to his goalie was terribly miscalculated.
The guests reacted with considerable bravery. As Shamrock broke, Chelsea goalie Filip Jörgensen swooped to his top corner to deflect a drive from Johnny Kenny. Shamrock let their supporters dream for a moment from the ensuing corner.
The Estonian international Poom, whose father, Mart, played here for Derby in the 1990s, was waiting to smash Dylan Watts’ cross back goalward as it headed out to the edge of the box. His drive swerved off Cesare Casadei’s heel and sped past Jörgensen.
The way Shamrock gave up the following goal was all the more bittersweet because it was a memorable moment in their European experience. Guiu was presented with another gift by Daniel Cleary. Guiu had the ideal trajectory to get there first and slip around Leon Pöhls to make it 2-1, but his pass back to him was underhit and never reached his goalkeeper.
After forty minutes, the home team scored a third goal. Christopher Nkunku was pulled to the ground by Roberto Lopes after Cucurella got a pass through for him. Dewsbury-Hall scored his second goal for Chelsea by driving the loose ball into the bottom corner before the referee could signal for a penalty.
With the final move of the first half, Guiu reached the top of the box to catch Noni Madueke’s cross into the corner, completing his hat-trick. Just before the hour, Cucurella made it 5-1 by cutting inside his defender and then driving inside the near post.
For a taste of European football, Maresca brought in academy graduates Harvey Vale, Harrison Murray-Campbell, and Samuel Rak-Sakyi. Then, 18-year-old winger George came close to opening his Chelsea account, but was stopped on the line by Rovers captain Lopes.
