{"id":1096,"date":"2025-05-29T19:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2025-05-29T19:23:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T11:23:20","slug":"chelsea-had-to-win-conference-league-says-captain-james","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/29\/chelsea-had-to-win-conference-league-says-captain-james\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea &#8216;had&#8217; to win Conference League, says captain James"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"661\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-44.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1097\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-44.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-44-300x198.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-44-768x508.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Chelsea captain Reece James said anything other than winning the UEFA Conference League would have been judged a failure after beating Real Betis 4-1 in the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>James came off the bench to help inspire a second-half turnaround as the Blues stormed back from 1-0 down at the break. Goals from Enzo Fernandez, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho and Moises Caicedo secured Chelsea&#8217;s first trophy since 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The English giants were strong favourites for the competition before a ball was kicked thanks to far wealthier resources than their rivals in Europe&#8217;s third tier tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That financial disparity showed as Enzo Maresca&#8217;s team cruised to glory, but James is aware they face a far tougher test when they return to the Champions League next season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Coming into this competition, it was something we had to win,&#8221; James told TNT Sports. &#8220;Next season we&#8217;re going again in the Champions League.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Victory also meant Chelsea became the first club to win all four major UEFA competitions after the Champions League, Europa League and disbanded Cup Winners&#8217; Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;To be the only team in history (to win all four), it is a great feeling,&#8221; said Cole Palmer, who helped turn the game with two assists for Chelsea&#8217;s first two goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea captain Reece James said anything other than wi [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1098,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096\/revisions\/1098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}