Maresca: Jackson has his confidence back

Enzo Maresca declared that Nicolas Jackson has rediscovered his confidence after the striker scored twice in a resounding Chelsea win in the first leg of the Uefa Conference League semi-final.

Winning 4-1 away to Swedish team Djurgården means next week’s second leg at Stamford Bridge seems like a formality.

There were also goals for Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho in a largely one-sided game.

Having ended a 13-game goalless run by scoring against Everton at the weekend, Jackson has now netted three times in his past two matches.

That has encouraged head coach Maresca, who hopes Cole Palmer can also rediscover his scoring touch.

Maresca said: “Nico scored against Everton and it’s all about confidence. You can see that he looks a different player from weeks ago. He has confidence again.

“Hopefully the same thing is going to happen with Cole.”

Chelsea are all but through to the final after their empathic win.

But Maresca insisted: “We cannot allow ourselves to drop. The performance for one hour 70 minutes was good, then we dropped a little bit in the last 20 minutes.”