Chelsea has booked its passage to the Champions League knockout phase 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 it 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.
Chelsea, who had made life hard for itself after squandering leads in its three away matches, won the group by a point with 11 points from its six games after Leverkusen could only draw 1-1 at Belgian makeweights Genk.
Drogba said the side had been focused on the job and determined to win.
"There was a lot of pressure (but) our attitude was positive," the Ivoirian said.
"I think the pressure sometimes can be positive."
Coach Andre Villas-Boas praised his men.
"They worked very hard for this win - and guess what? We finished top of the group against all odds," he smiled after consigning Valencia to the Europa League.
Arsenal meanwhile was able to ring the changes - nine in all compared with its 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 after 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.
Yossi Benayoun pulled one back on the hour but the Gunners almost conceded again when Mannone missed coming for a loose ball and Francois Modesto headed wide of an open goal before finally making amends with the late third.
The result looked to have secured Olympiakos's progress to the last 16, but a late turn-around in the group's other clash between Dortmund and Marseilles broke Greek hearts.
A stunning late goal from Mathieu Valbuena capped off a brilliant Marseilles comeback from two goals down to beat Dortmund 3-2, meaning the French outfit pipped Olympiakos to qualify in second place.
"I have some regrets," Wenger admitted afterwards, noting his team lacked experience at this level.
Like Arsenal, Barcelona - the reigning champions and the team which denied Wenger in the 2006 final - also sent out a second-string side but it showed its strength in depth in brushing aside BATE Borisov 4-0 at Camp Nou.
First, 19-year-old Sergi Roberto produced a classy finish for Pep Guardiola's side 10 minutes before half-time and then Martin Montoya and a brace, one a penalty, from Pedro Rodriguez, emphasised the huge gulf in class.
Barca won Group H at a canter with 16 points while seven-times winner AC Milan, held 2-2 at Czech outfit Plzen, also went through on nine points.
But Porto, which won the trophy in 2004 under Jose Mourinho, is out after Zenit St Petersburg held it to a goalless draw in Portugal to go through from Group G.
Zenit knew a point would be enough and defended stoutly to progress behind already-qualified APOEL Nicosia, the Cypriot club winning Group G by virtue of a better head-to-head record despite losing its final game at home to Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0.
AFP
Tags: champions-league, soccer, sport, england, spain First posted December 07, 2011 09:30:48
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