Europa Conference League semi-final draw: Who Chelsea will face if they beat Legia Warsaw

Chelsea are in UEFA Europa Conference League action on Thursday night as they face Legia Warsaw in Poland in the first leg of their quarter final. The club sit fifth in the Polish Ekstraklasa and beat Norwegian club Molde 4-3 on aggregate in the round of 16.

Enzo Maresca’s side defeated Copenhagen 3-1 on aggregate in their first knockout clash as they advanced by winning each of their legs by a single goal. The Blues breezed into the round of 16 with six wins from their six league phase games, scoring 26 goals and conceding only five. They are the heavy favourites to go on and win the competition ahead of the likes of Real Betis and Fiorentina.

Legia Warsaw supporters are poised to make it an intimating atmosphere on Thursday, as Maresca said: ‘‘The players have to think they are lucky to experience this kind of game and this kind of moment. We need to experience these kinds of games. For sure, we will be a better team for it. We are very young, but at the same moment need these games to improve. We cannot allow external things to change the way we feel or behave.”

UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final draw

With UEFA’s club competitions undergoing a revamp this season, the path to the final of the Conference League has already been mapped out. The quarter-final and semi-final draws were both made alongside the round of 16 draw.

It means that Chelsea will face Swedish club Djurgården or SK Rapid Wien in the last four. Djurgården are ninth in the Swedish Allsvenskan but the 2025 campaign is only two games old with the club winning once and drawing once domestically so far. SK Rapid are fifth in the Austrian Bundesliga and have lost eight times in their 24 league games.

In the Conference League, both clubs finished in the top eight of the league phase, losing just one of their respective games. They defeated Pafos and Borac, respectively, in their round of 16 ties. On the other side of the draw, Real Betis face Jagiellonia in their quarter final while Fiorentina take on Celje.

When and where is the 2025 UEFA Europa Conference League final

The final of the competition will be played on Wednesday, May 28 at 8pm. It is a week after the Europa League final and a few days before the Champions League final. The final of the Conference League will be held at the Stadion Wrocław in Wroclaw, Poland.

The stadium is home to two-time Polish champions Śląsk Wrocław and has a capacity of 40,000. It was built in 2011 ahead of Euro 2012 as Poland co-hosted the tournament alongside Ukraine. It hosted three games of the competition and is third largest stadium in Poland. Wrocław sits in the south west quarter of Poland and is around 354km from the capital of Warsaw.

The 2024/25 winners will also get a spot in the Europa League next season but Chelsea will have their sights on Champions League football. It was confirmed after Arsenal’s stunning win over Real Madrid this week that the Premier League would get five spots in next season’s competition.