- Arsenal, Chelsea through to Champs last 16
- Roma, Dynamo Kiev and Gent also advance
PARIS — Olivier Giroud was Arsenal’s hero as the Gunners and Chelsea succeeded Wednesday where Manchester United failed a day earlier to advance to the draw for the last 16 of the Champions League.
The London clubs celebrated on the final night of group stage action as Roma, Dynamo Kiev and the Belgian underdogs Gent also secured their places in the knockout phase.
Arsenal had needed to overturn a 3-2 defeat at home to Olympiakos earlier in the season when it faced the Greek champion away in a Group F showdown.
Arsene Wenger’s side had lost in Piraeus on three separate occasions in recent seasons but France striker Giroud gave it a first-half lead and crucially doubled its advantage shortly after the restart following superb play by Joel Campbell.
Giroud then netted a penalty in the 69th minute to seal Arsenal’s place in the last 16 for the 16th season in a row, although finishing second in its group exposes it to the possibility of being drawn against Real Madrid or Barcelona in the next round.
Group winner Bayern Munich finished with a 2-0 victory at Dinamo Zagreb thanks to a second-half Robert Lewandowski brace as Thomas Mueller missed a late penalty and coach Pep Guardiola claimed his 100th win in charge.
Enduring a difficult season domestically, Chelsea progressed to the last 16 as Group G winner with a 2-0 win at home to Jose Mourinho’s old side Porto as Ivan Marcano’s early own goal put it ahead and Willian scored in the second half.
Porto started the day on top of the group but finished by tumbling into the Europa League itself after being overtaken by Dynamo Kiev as the Ukrainian champion beat Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 through a Denys Garmash goal to reach the last 16 for the first time since 1999-2000.
Elsewhere, Roma advanced as runner-up in Group E despite a dreary 0-0 draw at home to BATE Borisov in the Italian capital.
That was because Bayer Leverkusen could only draw 1-1 at home to group winner and defending European champion Barcelona in Germany, unable to find the winner it needed after the in-form Javier Hernandez canceled out Lionel Messi’s opener.
Leverkusen goes into the Europa League, and that is the consolation that Valencia has to settle for after it was beaten 2-0 at home by Lyon in Group H in former England defender Gary Neville’s first match as head coach of the Spaniards.
Maxwel Cornet and Alexandre Lacazette scored to give already eliminated Lyon a consolation win, although it was all academic for Valencia anyway as Gent’s 2-1 victory at home to Zenit St Petersburg took it through.
Laurent Depoitre and Danijel Milicevic netted for Gent either side of a strike by the prolific Artem Dzyuba as the Buffalos became the first Belgian club to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League. The draw for the last 16 will take place at UEFA’s headquarters in Switzerland Monday.
