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Chelsea beat Slavia 4-3 to book Europa League last-four place

Chelsea
London, April 18, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) Chelsea reached the UEFA Europa League semi-finals by beating Slavia Prague 4-3, helped by a Pedro double on Thursday.

Pedro led Chlesea’s first half onslaught before withstanding the Czech’s comeback bid after the break in a pulsating game.

The London side were cruising 4-1 at half-time but Slavia Prague added two goals early in the second period.

Two powerful strikes by Petr Sevcik, narrowed the aggregate score to 5-3.

The London side had won the first leg 1-0.

Sevcik spurned a chance to cut the deficit further before Chelsea held on to see out the win and set up a semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt.

The German side won 2-0 against Benfica to go through on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate scoreline.

Chelsea raced into a 3-0 lead within 17 minutes, starting with Pedro chipping goalkeeper Ondrej Kolar.

The Spain winger hit the post four minutes later only for the ball to rebound into the face of Simon Deli and into the net for an own goal.

Pedro carved out Chelsea’s third when he squared for a simple finish by Olivier Giroud and the scurrying Spaniard claimed Chelsea’s fourth goal in the 27th minute.

A minute earlier, Slavia’s captain Tomas Soucek had given the boisterous Czech fans something to cheer at Stamford Bridge when he powered in a header from a corner kick.

A Chelsea triumph in the UEFA Europa League, a trophy they won in 2013, would provide a way back into the UEFA Champions League.

This will be if they finish outside the English Premier League (EPL) top four this season.

They currently sit fifth on the league table.(Reuters/NAN)
KIA/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)

Sport

Europa League: Giroud hat-trick leads Chelsea into quarter-finals

Hat-trick

London, March 14, 2019 (Reuters/NAN) A perfect hat-trick from Olivier Giroud helped Chelsea overcome Dynamo Kiev 5-0 on Thursday where they will be joined by Napoli and Valencia.

The London side cruised into the Europa League quarter-finals in style against their Ukrainian opponents.

Giroud, the tournament’s top scorer this season, got his seventh and eighth goals in the first half and Marcos Alonso tapped in a third from close range seconds before halftime.

French striker Giroud made it 4-0 after 59 minutes when he headed home from a Willian free kick and Callum Hudson-Odoi added a fifth to cap an 8-0 aggregate victory for the Premier League side.

The perfect hat-trick – goals with his left foot, right foot and a header – was Giroud’s first for Chelsea and the win was the London club’s ninth in 10 Europa League games this season.

Napoli beat Salzburg 3-0 at home last week and it looked like they had wrapped up the tie after 14 minutes when Arkadiusz Milik put them ahead with an acrobatic strike.

But the Austrians, whose unbeaten home run in Europe stretches back 17 games, fought back to win the match 3-1.

Munas Dabbur equalised with his eighth Europa League goal of the season.

Substitute Fredrik Gulbrandsen made it 2-1 win when he converted a low cross from Andreas Ulmer midway through the second half.

Christoph Leitgeb got Salzburg’s third in stoppage-time but the early away goal ensured Napoli went through 4-3 on aggregate.

In Krasnodar, it took the home side until the 85th minute to revive their hopes of a quarter-final place at the expense of Valencia.

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, a spectacular strike from Shapi Suleymanov made it 2-2 on aggregate and would have put Krasnodar through on away goals.

However, Goncalo Guedes broke Russian hearts in stoppage-time to earn the Spaniards a dramatic victory.

Later on Thursday, Arsenal host Rennes trailing 3-1 from the first leg in France while Villarreal, who beat Zenit 3-1 in St Petersburg, face the Russians in Spain.

Benfica hope to overturn a 1-0 deficit at home to Dinamo Zagreb, Slavia Prague and Sevilla start level at 2-2 and Inter Milan against Eintracht Frankfurt is finely poised at 0-0.

The draw for the quarter-finals takes place on Friday. (Reuters/NAN)

KIA/MZA

Edited by Maharazu Ahmed