Chelsea booked their passage to the Champions League knockout phase on Tuesday with a 3-0 win over Valencia at Stamford Bridge while an already-qualified Arsenal went down to defeat at Olympiakos. Valencia enjoyed some impressive periods on the ball, but the Spaniards — who went into the final-day duel level on points with their rivals — never recovered from a third-minute opening goal from Didier Drogba, who played a starring role in a match which saw the Blues win Group E at Bayer Leverkusen’s expense.
Daniel Sturridge hit a laser-guided pass to Juan Mata and the former Valencia star fed Drogba, the Ivory Coast striker firing home an unerring left-footed finish.
Jordi Alba responded by striking the post for Valencia but Chelsea, knowing they had to go for the three points to ensure further progress, turned the screw again on 22 minutes as a defensive mix-up, coupled with a mazy Drogba run, saw Ramires nip in ahead of Victor Ruiz to score. A neat Drogba finish with 14 minutes remaining wrapped up an ultimately comprehensive victory, with Chelsea emphatically crushing any talk of crisis at the club three days after winning by a similar scoreline at Newcastle.
Arsenal meanwhile were able to ring the changes — nine in all compared with their weekend romp at Wigan — having already won Group F. But Arsene Wenger’s 200th European match in charge ended in a 3-1 loss to Olympiakos, who were two minutes away from joining them in the next round only to be denied by a last-gasp Marseille goal at Dortmund. Algerian forward Rafik Djebbour netted the hosts’ opener before substitute ‘keeper Vito Mannone — who came on for the injured Lukasz Fabianski — completely flunked an attempted clearance as David Fuster made it 2-0.
