UEFA Europa Conference League

Chelsea all-but confirmed passage to the last 16 of the Conference League with a 3-1 win against Astana in Kazakhstan as Enzo Maresca handed full debuts to two academy graduates.

Defender Josh Acheampong, 18, and 19-year-old midfielder Samuel Rak-Sakyi each played for the club at under-eight level and enjoyed comfortable first starts in the senior team, as the visitors triumphed in temperatures of around minus 10 in the Kazakh capital Almaty.

Fellow teenager Marc Guiu, a relative veteran with six previous Chelsea starts, scored twice inside the opening 18 minutes before Renato Veiga headed in his second for the club before half-time.

Astana were themselves playing 600 miles from home as their regular stadium underwent renovations, and they gave those who had made the arduous journey reason for cheer when Croatian striker Marin Tomasov pinged one in off the post in a moment of rare quality from the hosts.

Maresca handed a second senior start to 18-year-old Tyrique George and left at home the majority of the XI that started Sunday’s 4-3 win over Tottenham, with Pedro Neto – who is suspended for the weekend’s meeting with Brentford – the only player to make the 7,000-mile round-trip.

Neto had Chelsea’s first chance in freezing conditions in Kazakhstan, skating in off the right and striking low towards the near post, goalkeeper Mukhammedzhan Seysen dropping low to his left to save.

Guiu’s opener was a fine solo effort. Collecting the ball almost on the touchline wide on the right, he stood up the full-back Aleksandr Marochkin before powering beyond him into the box and prodding the ball inside the post for his second Chelsea goal.

Astana were already looking hopelessly stretched. Neto was next to take advantage, rocketing around the outside of his defender and crossing low towards Guiu. Seysen dived to get hands on the ball but could only turn it back into danger where it ricocheted between Guiu and Marochkin and over the line.

Carney Chukwuemeka had a shot deflected wide after being given space but Astana did not heed the warning. From the resulting corner, Veiga was given the freedom of Almaty to rise and plant his header past the goalkeeper.

A torrid night for Astana was made more palatable when Tomasov slipped the attentions of Veiga and rifled in the goal of night, his strike sailing up and wide of Filip Jorgensen’s reach and in off the post.

Ato Ampah replaced Neto in the second half for his first senior Chelsea appearance, while Harvey Vale was sent on for a first appearance since 2022.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall fizzed an effort inches wide as he sought his second goal since joining in the summer, as Chelsea eased off their hosts in the second half.

Forward Shim Mheuka was also handed a Chelsea debut aged 17 to become the club’s second youngest player in Europe behind Dominic Solanke, then 18-year-old midfielder Kiano Dyer completed the roster of those making their bow in blue.

Chelsea swept past Armenian side Noah as Enzo Maresca’s second string turned in a merciless attacking display to win 8-0 at Stamford Bridge.

The Europa Conference League had been a testing ground for the head coach to ply his enviable strength in depth and, having hit four in each of their first two matches, his stand-ins raised the bar to blow the visiting team away with six goals scored in the first half demonstrating a chasmic gulf in class

Tosin Adarabioyo and Marc Guiu celebrated first Chelsea goals since joining, Joao Felix grabbed the opportunity to impress with two more, while there were goals too for Axel Disasi and, most impressively, Mykhailo Mudryk whose curler from outside the box was the pick of them.

Christopher Nkunku scored twice after the break, one of them a penalty, to cement his spot at the head of Chelsea’s scoring charts.

Noah boss Rui Mota said before kick-off that his team had not come to London simply to defend and the first half lent a bitter irony to those words, as Chelsea tore into the Armenians with unimagined ease.

Four times inside the opening 21 minutes besieged visiting goalkeeper Ognjen Chancharevich picked the ball out of his net, first when Adarabioyo lost his man at a corner and stooped to glance Enzo Fernandez’s cross across goal and in.

Defender Goncalo Silva gave the ball away virtually from the kick-off allowing Guiu to steal in and double the lead, then Disasi headed a near identical goal to the first, making the most of another Fernandez delivery to notch his fourth Chelsea goal.

Noah had actually had the first opportunity of the match, Goncalo Gregorio lashing the ball straight at Filip Jorgensen after a speedy counter-attack, and though their defence was an incoherent mess there were moments of competence in the attacking third that briefly worried Chelsea.

That early threat was a distant memory by the time Felix grabbed the first of his two goals and it was another error by the hapless Silva, losing possession tamely and allowing Fernandez – captain for the night having lost his place in Maresca’s Premier League XI – to feed Felix for a simple finish.

That made it four goals in a blitzkrieg nine-minute spell, a signal for Chelsea briefly to pull back. If they intended to go easy thereafter on Noah, no one had told Mudryk, who lashed in a fifth as sublime as any this ground had seen on European nights.

Felix’s drive may have been going wide before captain Hovhannes Hambartsumyan swung a leg and diverted it into the corner for 6-0.

The only thing missing had been a goal for Nkunku. He was denied twice in the second half, first by Chancharevich then by the crossbar as he sought his ninth of the campaign.

Finally his luck turned 20 minutes from time when the ball rebounded back to him off the goalkeeper for him to squeak the rebound inside the near post.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall won a penalty allowing the France international to complete the rout.