• Champions League round-up

Chelsea smash Valencia to stay in Champions League

Didier Drogba delivered a powerhouse performance for Chelsea © Getty Images

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Chelsea's Champions League adventure is still alive after they booked their place in the knockout stages with a 3-0 victory over Valencia at Stamford Bridge. The Blues even avoided the prospect of landing a tough tie with the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid in the last 16 after a draw for Bayer Leverkusen against Genk allowed Chelsea to top Group E, on a night when almost everything went right for Andre Villas-Boas.

Defeat in their last Champions League outing at Leverkusen meant Chelsea faced a range of mathematical scenarios on Tuesday, but one guarantee was that victory for Valencia would end their adventure. The Spaniards arrived off the back of a 7-0 win over Genk, but this time it was Chelsea who showed a clinical edge through a Didier Drogba brace, either side of a first-half strike from Ramires.

Villas-Boas, whose job would have been thrown into severe jeopardy by a group stage exit, opted to leave out Frank Lampard from the side that beat Newcastle 3-0 at the weekend, controversially preferring Raul Meireles.

It was Meireles who fired an early warning to the visitors when curling an effort goalwards inside two minutes, and Valencia failed to wake from their slumber as they fell behind moments later. The goal was simple in its creation, Juan Mata laying the ball back for Drogba, who faked to curl with his right foot before driving into the far corner with his left for Chelsea's fastest ever Champions League goal in the third minute.

It was the start Villas-Boas had craved, but almost immediately Chelsea came close to tossing it away as Jordi Alba snuck into the inside-left channel, slamming the ball against Petr Cech's near post. Valencia's threat was evident and moments later Cech was forced into a world class save as he clawed David Albelda's 25-yard rocket out of the top corner.

With Valencia enjoying over 65 per cent possession Chelsea needed a second, and it duly arrived midway through the first half when Victor Ruiz inexplicably allowed Ramires to run onto Drogba's pass, sliding the ball past Diego Alves.

Vito Mannone was to blame for Olympiacos' second goal © PA Photos

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Drogba and Daniel Sturridge then wasted glorious chances to kill the game off in the second half, but it mattered little as Drogba finally put the game to bed with his second, using the outside of his boot to beat Alves with 14 minutes remaining.

Leverkusen threw away top spot in Group E after they could only draw 1-1 with Genk. The home side took a shock lead against the run of play when Jelle Vossen found the net on the half-hour, and the Bundesliga side could only find one in reply through Eren Derdiyok as Chelsea were gifted the easier draw in the last 16.

Arsenal's fortunes were already decided as they headed to Olympiacos as Group F winners, so it was little surprise that they fell to a 3-1 defeat in Greece. Arsene Wenger took the opportunity to field some of his fringe players, making nine changes as Robin van Persie was rested, and the Gunners committed a series of errors en route to a disappointing result.

Andrei Arshavin had Arsenal's first chance of the contest on eight minutes, side-footing the ball straight at the goalkeeper having been played clean through inside the area. The Gunners were left to rue that moment when a mix-up between Sebastien Squillaci and Johan Djourou allowed Rafik Djebbour to round Lukasz Fabianski for the opening goal.

Fabianski's night was soon over as a collision prompted the arrival of Vito Mannone, and Mannone then committed one of the most calamitous mistakes of the season to gift David Fuster a second for the Greeks. Returning to his area having rushed out to partially head the ball clear, Mannone then chose to attempt a wild volley - rather than simply catch - Fuster's soft volley, completely missing the ball as it rolled tamely into the Arsenal net.

Wenger lost another player to injury in the second period as Andre Santos was stretchered off, and even though Arsenal narrowed the deficit through a sweet Yossi Benayoun volley, they never deserved parity after an error-ridden display - conceding a third to Francois Modesto.

Olympiacos will still only qualify for the Europa League though after Marseille came from two down to beat Dortmund 3-2 in Germany. Goals from Jakub Blaszczykowski and Mats Hummels were cancelled out by Loic Remy and Andre Ayew before Marseille won it at the death through Mathieu Valbuena.

Sergi Roberto opened the scoring for Barcelona © PA Photos

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Group H winners Barcelona warmed up for the weekend's Clasico against Real Madrid with a 4-0 stroll against BATE Borisov at Camp Nou. Barca boss Pep Guardiola rested all of his top names, but the European champions still picked up the three points thanks to goals from Sergi Roberto, Martin Montoya and Pedro(2).

AC Milan join the Catalans in the last 16, and they ended their group stage campaign with a 2-2 draw against Viktoria Plzen. Alexandre Pato and Robinho put Milan two ahead but Plzen hit back through two goals in the last five minutes from David Bystron and Michal Duris.

And in Group G, Zenit St Petersburg will join Apoel Nicosia in the knockout rounds after they drew 0-0 with FC Porto in Portugal. A point kept Zenit marginally ahead of Porto in the group, while the already-qualified Apoel finished off with a 2-0 defeat against Shakhtar Donetsk, Luiz Adriano and Yevgen Seleznev grabbing the goals.

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