Chelsea breeze past Djurgarden to enter Conference League final

Favourites Chelsea, playing a second-string team, cantered into the Europa Conference League final with a regulation 1-0 second-leg win over Swedish side Djurgarden on Thursday for a 5-1 aggregate victory.

Their 38th-minute goal came from one of the more senior players on the pitch, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, 26, who received a neat pass from Tyrique George, rounded two defenders and fired home a left-foot shot.

"Amazing to be in the final," Dewsbury-Hall told TNT. "It has been a long couple of months but one more game to go and hopefully we can lift that trophy."

With the side 4-1 up from the first leg and involved in an end-of-season Premier League scrap for Champions League spots, Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca rested players and put out a youthful team including a first start for 16-year-old forward Reggie Walsh.

The result was a less than fluent display from the Premier League side but the gulf in quality was evident and they never lost control of the game.Djurgarden's intense and vocal travelling support kept up constant chanting and were rewarded with few chances, the best coming in the 71st minute when Chelsea goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen tipped a Daniel Stensson shot over the bar.

Walsh turns 17 only in October and made his senior debut for the club he joined aged seven in the first leg in Stockholm.He was joined in the starting lineup by 19-year-old George, while 17-year-old substitutes Genesis Antwi and Shumaira Mheuka came on in the second half.

"I'm just here to try and guide the young players. Reggie Yates is 16 and he was fantastic, composed ... You saw that with the players that played, very composed, very calm. That's a credit to the academy," Dewsbury-Hall said.

Chelsea face a stiffer challenge in the final where they play Spain's Real Betis in Wroclaw, Poland, on May 28.