Enzo Maresca has several selection conundrums ahead of tonight’s UEFA Conference League final against Real Betis, but one decision the head coach made some time ago: Filip Jorgensen will start in goal for the Blues.
The Dane has featured in all but one of our Conference League fixtures this term, missing the win away to Copenhagen during a period when he was playing Premier League matches. It's why Maresca had no hesitation confirming last week that Jorgensen would continue between the posts in the competition’s Wroclaw showpiece.
Tonight’s game brings an end to a season of growth and education for the 23-year-old. Jorgensen signed from Villarreal last summer following his first campaign as a regular in senior football, and he has backed that progress up this term.
‘I’m really happy with how it’s gone,’ Jorgensen says.
‘The year has been good. There have been ups and downs, but I have learned a lot, and this year has made me a much better goalkeeper than I was before.
‘I have got experience of games at the highest level in the best league in the world, and also just training at Cobham every day with a new goalkeeper coach. You have to learn his mentality and his training, so I just take in new experiences and try and get better. I think I have learned a lot this year.’
Jorgensen has shared goalkeeping duties with Robert Sanchez this season. The Spaniard has mostly donned the gloves in our league fixtures, with Jorgensen preferred by Maresca in the cup competitions.
The Dane, who will make his 23rd appearance of the season this evening, has only positive things to say about his counterpart. Indeed, he believes they are both benefitting from their connection on and off the pitch.
‘I try to help him as much as I can when he is playing, and I know he has done the same when I am playing,’ Jorgensen explains. ‘It’s not his decision if he is playing Premier League or cup games, and it’s not my decision, it’s the gaffer’s decision.
‘There is good competition, very hard competition. He is a very good goalkeeper and we learn a lot from each other. Pushing every day to show we are better than the other will help get us to a higher level.
‘We have a good relationship,' Jorgensen adds. 'We have had some food together outside the pitch, with other team-mates as well, and we get along good. The best way is to have a good and healthy rivalry with a lot of competition.’
A significant element of Jorgensen’s role is to be ‘prepared to step in’, as he puts it, at any moment. When he does know he is starting, like for tonight’s game, he says the key is to train hard, analyse the opposition’s strengths, and mentally prepare for the challenge ahead.
Jorgensen has done just that before we play Betis. Although he is the member of the squad who has most recently come up against the side from Seville – a 3-2 win in La Liga fixture in March 2024 – the goalkeeper is expecting an altogether different challenge later.
‘I know they have changed a lot since last year, but they are good technically and good in small space,s so it will be a very good game.
‘I am looking forward to it so much. That’s what we have worked for the whole year, to be in the Conference League final. I will get to play my first final at professional level. It will be really exciting. It’s going to be big, and hopefully we can get the trophy.’