It was a dominant display from Chelsea as they thrashed Shamrock Rovers 5-1 in the last game of the UEFA Conference League phase at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening, maintaining their 100% record in the competition.
Chelsea predictably dictated the tempo in the early stages but didn’t create any concrete chances until the 23rd minute where a defensive error was capitalised on by Marc Guiu to tap home for his fourth goal of the competition.
Rovers drew level not long after through Markus Poom whose effort from a corner took a deflection off Cesare Casadei into the net.
Another defensive error – a stray back-pass from Cleary to Pohls was pounced upon by Marc Guiu, who rounded the keeper to poach his second of the night in the 34th minute to restore Chelsea’s lead.
Chelsea extended their lead after a fantastic sliding challenge from Roberto Lopes stopped a goal-bound effort from Nkunku, but the rebound fell to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who calmly slotted his shot into the bottom corner to make it 3-1 to the Blues.
Guiu completed his hat-trick with a fine header from a Noni Madueke cross on the stroke of half time to make it 4-1 to Chelsea, putting the hosts in firm control going into the break.
It didn’t take much longer for the Blues to pick up where they left off as Cucurella latched onto a through ball from Nkunku and produced a composed finish across Pohls to make it 5-1 in the 58th minute.
Chelsea had a couple more chances to make it 6 through Joao Felix and Tyrique George but it wasn’t to be as it ended 5-1 in favour of the hosts.
Shamrock Rovers finish 10th in the table, just missing out on automatic qualification to the last 16 on goal difference, while Chelsea top the league with six wins out of six.
