PIRAEUS, Greece — Olivier Giroud scored a hat trick as Arsenal advanced to the last 16 of the Champions League with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos on Wednesday, overturning an advantage held by the Greeks.
The France striker opened the scoring in the 29th minute, heading home off a cross from Aaron Ramsey, with the ball bouncing under goalkeeper Roberto Gonzalez.
He struck again four minutes after halftime, running through defenders to slot in a pass from former Olympiakos player Joel Campbell.
Olympiakos, which beat Arsenal 3-2 in London, nearly pulled a goal back through Kostas Fortounis, while Ideye Brown missed a point blank chance.
But the game followed Arsenal’s script and the deafening crowd at Karaiskakis Stadium was silenced when Omar Elabdellaoui slipped and handled the ball.
Giroud again beat Gonzalez from the resulting penalty to seal the match and second place behind Bayern Munich in Group F.
"We are very pleased to go through," the 29-year-old Giroud said. "It was not easy to come here with this atmosphere … We were not in a good position, but we did it."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said he was proud the way his players overcame the odds.
"We needed to be strong mentally and show character. And we did that," he said. "From the first to the last minute we were a good team and I’m very proud of them."
Olympiakos had only needed a draw or a low-scoring decfeat to make it through, but gave credit to the Premier League club.
"We started well and denied them, especially in the first 20 minutes," Olympiakos coach Marco Silva said. "But the first goal affected the rest of the match. We kept trying to create chances. In the end though, you have to look our opponent and say: Tonight they were excellent."
Chelsea 2, Porto 0
LONDON — Chelsea finally had something to celebrate in its unexpectedly poor season Wednesday after qualifying for the Champions League knockout phase with a 2-0 victory over Porto.
Chelsea not only avoided the embarrassment of dropping into the Europa League, but Jose Mourinho’s team advanced as Group G winners while his former club, Porto, finished third behind Dynamo Kyiv to qualify for the second-tier competition.
Fortune favoured Chelsea in the 12th minute at Stamford Bridge when Ivan Marcano scored an own goal and Willian rifled a second strike past goalkeeper Iker Casillas early in the second half.
Chelsea’s assured performance — albeit against largely ineffective Portuguese visitors — has been lacking so often in a season when the Premier League title defence has seen the club lose eight out of 15 games.
Valencia 0, Lyon 2
VALENCIA, Spain — Valencia was eliminated from the Champions League after a 2-0 home loss to Lyon in new coach Gary Neville’s first game in charge on Wednesday.
Maxwel Cornet and Alexandre Lacazette scored a goal in each half to give already-eliminated Lyon its first win in the competition this season and end Valencia’s chances of advancing to the knockout stage.
Not even a win would have been enough as Gent defeated Zenit St. Petersburg 2-1 in Belgium to secure second place in Group H and a spot in the round of 16.
Zenit won the group with 15 points from six games, five points ahead of Gent. Valencia finished third with six points, good enough for a spot in the Europe League. Lyon was last in the group with four points.
Bayer Leverkusen 1, Barcelona 1
LEVERKUSEN, Germany — A Barcelona side without many stars played to a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday, relegating the German side to the Europa League.
Barcelona had already qualified and was sure to win Group E. Playing without Neymar, who sustained a groin strain in the final practice on Tuesday, and Luis Suarez, who was rested, Barcelona still went ahead through captain Lionel Messi, the only one of the three forward stars who started the match.
Messi picked up a perfect through ball from Ivan Rakitic to score in the 20th. Javier Hernandez levelled three minutes later.
Barcelona finished with 14 points, ahead of Roma with six. Roma advanced because of a better head-to-head over Leverkusen, which also had six points. Roma drew 0-0 with BATE Borisov.
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Roma 0, BATE Borisov 0
ROME — Roma did the bare minimum to advance in the Champions League, qualifying for the knockout phase following a 0-0 draw with BATE Borisov on Wednesday.
While the result stretched Roma’s winless streak in all competitions to five matches, the Giallorossi were fortunate enough to finish second in Group E behind defending champion Barcelona.
Barcelona won the group with 14 points following a 1-1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen. Roma and Leverkusen each finished with six points but Roma held the edge with a better head-to-head record.
BATE finished last with five points.
Roma’s last victory came more than a month ago in a 2-0 derby win over Lazio and coach Rudi Garcia is still under pressure entering a tough contest at Napoli this weekend.
Dinamo Zagreb 0, Bayern Munich 2
ZAGREB, Croatia — Robert Lewandowski scored twice for already-through Bayern Munich to complete its Champions League group campaign with a 2-0 win at Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday.
Half-time substitute Thomas Mueller set up Lewandowski’s opener in the 61st minute, three minutes before Sebastian Rode played the Poland striker through for his second goal — his seventh in six games.
Mueller struck the post with a penalty in the 87th.
Already assured of first place in Group F, Bayern was joined in the last 16 by Arsenal, which won 3-0 at Olympiakos to deprive the Greek champion of second place thanks to Olivier Giroud’s hat trick.
Bayern rested many players and gave Franck Ribery his first start in nine months, while American Julian Green started in his second competitive appearance for the side.
Dynamo Kyiv 1, Maccabi Tel Aviv 0
KIEV, Ukraine — A goal from Denys Harmash gave Dynamo Kyiv a 1-0 win over Maccabi Tel Aviv on Wednesday and a place in the last 16 of the Champions League for the Ukrainian champion.
Dynamo’s winner came with a slice of luck when Maccabi’s Tal Ben Chaim diverted a free-kick towards his own goal. Maccabi goalkeeper Predrag Rajkovic managed to stop the ball going into the net, but could only push it into the path of Harmash, who was left with a simple finish.
Dynamo qualifies from second place in Group G behind Chelsea, while Maccabi is last after losing all six of its matches.
The game was played in an empty stadium in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv as part of Dynamo’s punishment for racist attacks by its fans in October.
Gent 2, Zenit St. Petersburg 1
GHENT, Belgium — Gent qualified for the last 16 in its first ever Champions League campaign on Wednesday after goals from Laurent Depoitre and Danijel Milicevic gave the Belgian champion a 2-1 victory in Group H over already-qualified Zenit St. Petersburg.
Gent knew a victory would be enough to go through and the home side attacked from the kickoff. The tactic paid dividends in the 18th minute when Depoitre was left free by his marker Nicolas Lombaerts and glanced a high cross from Moses Simon beyond the reach of keeper Yuri Lodygin.
St. Petersburg got back into the game when Artim Dzyuba slotted home his sixth goal in as many games from close range in the 65th minute.
But Milicevic used his superb shooting skills for the decisive goal 13 minutes later.
