‘HERE WE BLOW’
Chelsea’s Christopher Nkunku celebrates scoring their first goal with a balloon during Thursday’s Europa Conference League match against Servette in London on Thursday.
Enzo Fernandez’s pass.
Tiemoko Ouattara almost pulled one back for Swiss side Servette late on when his deflected strike hit the crossbar.
It was a welcome win for Chelsea after suffering a 2-0 loss in Maresca’s debut game against Manchester City at the weekend.
The Blues are making their return to European competition after finishing sixth in the Premier League last season under Mauricio Pochettino.
“We are learning how to manage the game,” said Maresca, who led Leicester to promotion to the Premier League last season.
“It was important to win the game with nine changes. There were many good things.”
But there was a scare for Chelsea, as key player Cole Palmer went down the dug-out holding the back of his leg at fulltime after coming on as a secondhalf substitute.
“Cole felt something but he looks fine. Hopefully it is no
problem and he can be available for Sunday’s game (against Wolves),” Maresca said.
Elsewhere, Greek club Panathinaikos suffered a 2-1 defeat at 10man Lens in their first leg, with Wesley Said scoring what proved to be the winner for the Ligue 1 side.
Former Spain and Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea endured a difficult debut as Fiorentina were held to a 3-3 home draw by Hungarians Puskas Akademia.
Irish club St Patrick’s kept their hopes of qualifying for the group stage of a European tournament for the first time alive, drawing 00 with Istanbul Basaksehir.
In the Europa League play-offs, Dutch giants Ajax thrashed Jagiellonia 4-1 in Poland, with English forward Chuba Akpom scoring a hat-trick.
Besiktas blew a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with Lugano in Switzerland, while Scottish outfit Hearts lost 10 at Viktoria Plzen.