Arsenal and Chelsea further show the domineering of the English League in European football by their advancement to the quarter finals of the 2019 Europa League on Thursday night. Securing qualification to the quarter finals in the Europa League was an icing on the cake after all four English teams in the Champions League booked quarter-final tickets.
In qualifying for the quarter finals, Chelsea beat Dynamo Kiev 5-0 in Ukraine in their second leg match with Olivier Giroud scoring a hat trick. Other goals in the Thursday night football for Chelsea came through Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi who also had one apiece. The 5-0 win gave Chelsea their quarter final ticket by an aggregate of 8-0 after the first leg ended in 3-0 win at the Stamford Bridge.
Olivier Giroud hat trick on Thursday night made him the third player to score a hat trick in the 2019 Europa League.
Arsenal also qualified in a grand style by beating Rennes 3-0 in the Emirates to overturn their 3-1 loss in France a fortnight ago. The three goals came through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who scored twice with one in between by Ainsley Maitland-Niles to propel Arsenal to the quarter finals with a 4-3 aggregate.
The Europa League also saw Napoli advanced with a 4-3 aggregate against Salzburg who was a semi-finalist in the 2018 Europa League despite losing their second leg match 3-1.
Valencia also advanced to the quarter finals through an injury-time goal from substitute Goncalo Guedesgor. The match ended in a 1-1 draw at Krasnodar which gave Valencia a quarter final ticket with an aggregate of 3-2.
The quarter final draws for the Europa and Champions Leagues comes up on Friday 15th March, 2019.
