Head coach Enzo Maresca warned the job is not done yet after his Chelsea team beat Djurgarden 4-1 in Stockholm to put one foot in the Conference League final.
Nicolas Jackson struck twice in the second half while there were goals too for Jadon Sancho and Noni Madueke as the Swedish side were outclassed.
However, Chelsea have the recent memory of the quarter-final scare given to them by Legia Warsaw who won at Stamford Bridge having lost the first leg 3-0 at home.
“The performance for one hour, 70 minutes was good, then we dropped a little bit the last 20 minutes because we were at 4-0, but it showed us we cannot allow ourselves to drop.
“Against Warsaw away we won 3-0 but then at home we struggled, so it’s a good experience. For sure the next leg at home we’re going to finish our job.
“We have the experience of Warsaw, we can learn from that.”
Asked whether he thought the tie was over, he said: “No no, absolutely (not).”
Maresca left Cole Palmer on the bench alongside Jackson but both came on to good effect for the second half, Palmer setting up Jackson’s first which owed to a mix-up in the Djurgarden defence before the Senegal international fired in his second from the edge of the box.
It was a welcome sight for travelling fans, coming just days after Jackson had ended his four-month goalscoring drought against Everton, though Palmer’s fallow spell stretched to another match.
“If you remember at home against Warsaw we started with Nicolas and Cole from the beginning and both struggled,” said Maresca. “Now you can see that Nico looks a different player because he scored against Everton. He has confidence again.
“The same thing is for Cole and hopefully we can have him scoring and getting assists again.”
Chelsea led 2-0 at half-time thanks to Sancho’s early goal and a fine strike by Madueke, who continued to impress and left behind him the criticism made by Maresca of his attitude earlier in the season.
“The reason why I tried to push Noni is I think he can do better and better and better,” said Maresca. “In terms of numbers I think he’s scored more than 10. His season has been very good but we have five more games and hopefully he can help us with some more goals.”
There was also a debut in the second half for 16-year-old Reggie Walsh, who became the club’s youngest ever player in European competition.
“I’ve been excited for a long time to give him his debut chance because he’s so good,” said Maresca. “He’s very young but in the way we want to play, our style, he’s perfect.
“We gave eight debuts this second from the academy, it’s good.
“I said just enjoy the moment, be happy, play in the way he is training with us every day. He makes everything easy.”
