Giroud’s hat trick send Chelsea to Europa League quarters
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored two goals and set up another as Arsenal overturned a two-goal deficit to reach the Europa League quarterfinals with a 3-0 home win over Rennes on Thursday.
There were two upsets, though, as five-time champion Sevilla and Inter Milan were both eliminated.
Sevilla lost 4-3 at Slavia Prague after conceding a last-minute goal in extra time to go out 6-5 on aggregate, while Eintracht Frankfurt beat Inter 1-0 to advance.
At the Emirates Stadium, Aubameyang celebrated his second goal by pulling on a Black Panther mask he had placed behind the advertising boards, after coming to the rescue for an Arsenal side that lost the first leg 3-1 in France last week.
The Gunners erased that deficit in just 15 minutes, with Aubameyang scoring early and then setting up Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the second, before adding his second in the 72nd.
Another favorite, Benfica, needed extra time to advance, eliminating Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 on aggregate.
Chelsea had the most comfortable evening, and biggest victory, as Olivier Giroud celebrated his 50th European game by scoring a hat trick in a 5-0 rout of Dynamo Kiev.
Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi also had one apiece for Chelsea.
Elsewhere, Napoli advanced 4-3 on aggregate against last year's semifinalist Salzburg despite losing the second leg 3-1.
Valencia advanced thanks to an injury-time goal from substitute Goncalo Guedes that secured a 1-1 draw at Krasnodar and a 3-2 aggregate victory, while Villarreal eliminated Zenit St. Petersburg 5-2 on aggregate.
Here's a look at Thursday's action:
