LONDON: Marc Guiu’s first-half hat trick helped Chelsea ease past Shamrock Rovers 5-1 on Thursday to complete the league phase of the UEFA Conference League with a 100 percent record.

The 18-year-old forward, who netted twice in a 3-1 win over Astana in the previous round, opened the scoring in the 22nd minute with a header from close range at Stamford Bridge.

Markus Poom equalized for the Irish visitors, but Guiu restored Chelsea’s lead with an angled shot from the left in the 34th.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall made it 3-1 six minutes later before Guiu completed his first hat trick for the Blues with a header in stoppage time.

“I’ve never seen anyone press like him,” Dewsbury-Hall told TNTSports about Guiu. “He doesn’t slow down, he’ll keep working hard. You forget how young he is. He’s only 18. I’m happy that he got his hat trick, he deserves it.”

Guiu, who joined Chelsea from Barcelona this summer, has scored six goals in six games in the third-tier competition.

Marc Cucurella finished off the rout in the second half.

It’s now eight straight wins in all competitions for Enzo Maresca’s team, which equals the club’s record set in December 2016.

Of the 36 clubs involved in the revamped competition, the top eight in the standings go directly to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the knockout playoffs in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

Unlike the new-look Champions League and Europa League, teams in the Conference League face six opponents, not eight, in the league phase that replaced the traditional group stage.

Chelsea was the only team that stayed perfect, the only team that qualified to the round of 16 with a game to spare, and it scored 26 in six games, by far the most goals.

Despite its first defeat in the competition, Rovers finished 10th and became the first Irish club to advance to the knockout stage of a European competition.

Top eight

Rolando Mandragora netted for Fiorentina three minutes from time to salvage a 1-1 draw at Vitoria, a result that gave the Portuguese team second place with 14 points. Fiorentina, runner-up in the previous two editions, was a point back in third.

Rapid Vienna beat Copenhagen 3-0 to advance from fourth place on 13 points. Djurgarden was fifth with 13 points after a 3-1 win over Legia Warsaw, which was seventh place.

Lugano finished sixth after being held 2-2 at home by Pafos from Cyprus.

Cercle Brugge’s 1-1 draw against Basaksehir was enough to finish eighth.

Son Heung-min scored directly from a corner to fire Tottenham into the English League Cup semifinals with a thrilling 4-3 win over Manchester United on Thursday.
Son's spectacular strike in the 88th-minute at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium came as Spurs tried to hold off a dramatic comeback from United, having led 3-0 in the second half.
United had pulled it back to 3-2 and was pushing for an equalizer when Son whipped in a curling right-footed shot past goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.
Jonny Evans scored again for United in stoppage time, but Spurs held on for the win that had looked all but certain shortly after halftime.
Having gone ahead through Dominic Solanke’s goal from close range in the 15th, Tottenham took control after the break.
Dejan Kulusevski doubled the lead a minute after the restart and Solanke fired in his second in the 54th.
United head coach Ruben Amorim made a triple substitution — bringing on Joshua Zirkzee, Amad Diallo and Kobbie Mainoo.
It quickly had an impact with Zirkzee forcing Fraser Forster into a flying save and then capitalizing on a loose pass by the Tottenham goalkeeper to make it 3-1.
Forster was guilty of another mistake in the 70th when his attempted clearance was closed down by Diallo and ricocheted over the line.
United increased the pressure, but Son's unlikely goal gave Spurs a cushion again — and it proved to be the decisive strike after Evans' late header reduced the deficit again.