Chelsea double up with second Youth League win

Chelsea created a piece of UEFA Youth League history when they became the first team to retain the Lennart Johansson Trophy, defeating Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 in the final.

That the Blues accomplished the feat in only the competition's third season – one in which the field doubled in size to 64 teams to include the domestic youth champions of UEFA's 32 highest-ranked associations – spoke volumes for the quality of the London club's academy and Adi Viveash's squad.

For four members of the starting XI against Paris (Bradley Collins, Jake Clarke-Salter, Temitayo Aina and captain Charlie Colkett) it was a second UEFA Youth League success, the quartet having featured from the off against Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2015 decider.

Th 2016 final result extended Chelsea's undefeated UEFA Youth League run to 15 matches, a sequence dating back to November 2014.

Returning semi-finalists Anderlecht seldom looked like threatening that in Nyon as the Blues eased to a 3-0 victory courtesy of strikes from Kasey Palmer, Colkett and Tammy Abraham.

Paris, who overcame Real Madrid 3-1 in the other last-four tie at Colovray Sports Centre, offered a sterner test of Chelsea's credentials. Jean-Kévin Augustin – on target against Madrid – had a first-half penalty saved, the spot kick having been awarded for a foul by the scorer of the opening goal, Fikayo Tomori. Though they equalised just before the hour through Yakou Meïté, François Rodrigues' charges conceded again four minutes later, Palmer tucking away Ali Mukhtar's through ball.

Anderlecht were the only semi-finalists whose journey to Switzerland started in the Domestic Champions path, which featured entrants from Scotland to Kazakhstan and many countries in between – overall, 37 nations were represented in the 2015/16 edition. Anderlecht and seven other teams survived two knockout rounds to make it to the play-offs, where they faced the runners-up from the eight UEFA Champions League groups in one-off ties.

Barcelona and Benfica, like Chelsea, emerged unbeaten from the group stage. Benfica registered 29 goals in their six matches, demolishing Galatasaray 11-1 and Astana 8-0, but their scoring touch deserted them thereafter. The Eagles eventually succumbed 2-0 to Madrid after edging out Příbram on penalties in the round of 16.

Atlético Madrid managed 25 goals of their own. While the Spanish side's campaign ended in a shoot-out loss to Midtjylland in the play-offs, Roberto Nuñez finished the campaign as the leading marksman thanks to his tally of nine goals in his first five outings.

It was in the group stage that Manchester United's Marcus Rashford scored twice on his competition debut, as he would do five months later in the UEFA Europa League when thrust into the spotlight for the visit of Midtjylland by Louis van Gaal.