Chelsea reached their first European semi-final under their BlueCo ownership, though you would not have known it by the reaction at the full-time whistle.
Fans booed as confirmation came of this second-leg loss to a side sitting fifth in the Polish Ekstraklasa, despite Enzo Maresca turning to his A-listers for the visit of Legia Warsaw.
Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson took themselves to 15 and 12 games without scoring respectively, and there were further jeers from fans when they felt the football was too tedious.
Chelsea are overwhelming favourites to secure this trophy, but still need to win over their fanbase.
Those arriving at Stamford Bridge thought with such a comfortable lead from the first leg, Enzo Maresca would turn to the Cobham conveyor belt. They supposed wrong. Maresca’s substitutes’ bench was certainly chokka with academy kids, but his actual line-up was of Premier League strength, which was surprising with an important trip to Fulham less than 72 hours away.
Even Palmer started. He had not scored in any competition since January 14. He should have got a goal here after 84 seconds when one-on-one with Vladan Kovacevic but the out-of-form Englishman missed the target entirely.
Chelsea made it to the Conference League semi-finals despite a 2-1 defeat on Thursday
Legia Warsaw handed the Blues just their third defeat at Stamford Bridge this season
Enzo Maresca’s side were booed off by their home fans for already the second time this week
When Christopher Nkunku was then denied by Kovacevic, Palmer rushed on to the rebound. He tried a diving header, but Legia’s goalkeeper recovered to produce a super save.
Legia’s first attack after 10 minutes led to them scoring as Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen crashed into Tomas Pekhart to concede a penalty. Pekhart took it himself, scoring to make it 1-0 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate despite Jorgensen diving the right way.
Legia should have further reduced the deficit when Ryoya Morishita broke behind unmarked, but he dragged wide when facing down Jorgensen.
After 32 minutes, Jadon Sancho crossed low, Marc Cucurella tapped in, and Chelsea’s three-goal advantage on aggregate was restored. They had not scored in any of their last eight first halves but had now. Cucurella thought he had added another before the break, but VAR correctly disallowed it for an offside in the build-up.
At half-time, Maresca replaced Jackson with Tyrique George, the 19-year-old who went up top. After 50 minutes, another youngster in Josh Acheampong lost possession carelessly in midfield as Legia broke forward, with Jorgensen needed to stop Luquinhas from scoring.
The visitors won a corner from that move, and the out-swinger was volleyed towards goal by Claude Goncalves before being helped in by Steve Kapuadi for 2-1.
Chelsea’s fans were frustrated and as was the case in Sunday’s draw with Ipswich, they let it known by jeering as their team tried to pass their way out of the back. Legia’s away support responded by lighting dozens of flares.
Maresca’s side went in search of a leveller with Noni Madueke and George both denied by goal-line clearances. Jorgensen was relieved when another penalty was not awarded against him after colliding with Luquinhas, and George was frustrated when the offside flag denied him a goal.
Chelsea lost on the night, but thankfully, their aggregate cushion saw them through.