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Enzo Maresca praised Chelsea’s young debutants Josh Acheampong and Samuel Rak-Sakyi after his team qualified for the last 16 of the Conference League with a 3-1 win against Astana in Kazakhstan.
The head coach left at home all but one of the XI that started Sunday’s 4-3 win over Tottenham, but it did not stop an inexperienced second string easing to victory in temperatures of around minus 10 in the Kazakh capital Almaty.
There was also a second senior start for winger and academy graduate Tyrique George and, having built a commanding lead they never looked like surrendering, Maresca felt confident enough to finish the game with an additional three teenage debutants on the pitch, all sent on in the second half.
“I was impressed by all of them,” said Maresca. “The ones that started – Tyrique, Sam and Josh – they all have done very good. Very happy for them. Also the ones that came on in the second half. So I’m pleased for them.”
The match was played in highly unusual conditions. Not only had Chelsea endured a 3,500-mile flight, extended so as to avoid flying over Russian and Ukrainian airspace, but temperatures that dropped well below freezing made for a difficult pitch that was unlike anything players are used to even at academy level.
The 18-year-old striker Marc Guiu made light of the poor surface in opening the scoring, zipping beyond Astana defender Aleksandr Marochkin before slipping the ball inside the near post.
He knew less about his second goal, the ball ricocheting between him and Marochkin from Pedro Neto’s cross and eventually going in off the former Barcelona player, then Renato Veiga scored his second Chelsea goal with a thumping header from a corner to make it 3-0.
Despite being largely outclassed, it was Astana that scored the outstanding goal of the match, Croatian striker Marin Tomasov ghosting past Veiga and guiding a wonderful finish up and over goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen that pinged against a post and in.
Chelsea were due to arrive back in London early on Friday morning before beginning preparations for Sunday’s game at home to Brentford, although it is likely none of the travelling party will be involved from the start at Stamford Bridge.
There were debuts from the bench in Almaty for academy graduates Ato Ampah, Shim Mheuka and Kiano Dyer, while 21-year-old Harvey Vale was given a first appearance since 2022.
“We knew it would be cold,” said Maresca. “We tried to adapt. The players did fantastically with the weather conditions, long flight yesterday and also the pitch probably was not ideal. But I’m very happy for the players.
“We will land at around six o’clock (in the morning) UK time, but we are going to try to prepare the game in the best way we can as we have always done this season.”
