Hazard stars as Chelsea win Europa League

Eden Hazard scored twice for Chelsea

​​​​​​​Eden Hazard scored twice in potentially his final game for Chelsea to help secure a 4-1 win over Arsenal in the Europa League final in Baku and end the Gunners’ hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Following a lacklustre first half, Olivier Giroud headed in the opener against his former side in the 49th minute before Pedro swept in from Hazard’s cross on the hour mark.

Hazard – who is wanted by Real Madrid and said immediately after the match he thinks this is “goodbye” – added a third from the penalty spot and then netted the fourth in the 72nd minute after Alex Iwobi had pulled a goal back for Arsenal with a fine long-range strike.

Defeat means Arsenal will play in the Europa League for a third season in a row.

Chelsea finish Maurizio Sarri’s first season with silverware and attentions will now turn to the futures of Hazard and Sarri, who is a reported target for Juventus.

Much of the talk ahead of the match had surrounded travel difficulties for fans of both London sides and a drab first half did little to improve the atmosphere at the Baku Olympic Stadium, which was far from full.

Aubameyang spurned the best chance in a low-key start, driving a shot wide from inside the box after a poor punch at the near post from Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Arsenal also had a penalty appeal turned away by the Video Assistant Referee when Alexandre Lacazette appeared to be taken down by Arrizabalaga after prodding the ball past the goalkeeper.

Pedro netted Chelsea’s second goal

With Chelsea struggling to build any momentum, Granit Xhaka clipped the top of the bar with a powerful strike from 20 yards out.

However, Chelsea improved in the latter stages of the first half as Emerson Palmieri forced Petr Cech – playing his final game before likely becoming Chelsea’s sporting director – to push away a shot in the 34th minute and Giroud then forced Cech into an excellent one-handed save when he shot towards the bottom corner from the edge of the box.

It was Giroud who broke the deadlock after half-time when he expertly headed in from Emerson’s cross to score his 11th goal in this season’s Europa League – the most in the competition.

Olivier Giroud finished as the top scorer in the Europa League with 11 goals

Chelsea then seized control of the game with two goals in quick succession.

Pedro scored a second on the hour mark when he swept in from Hazard’s cross before Giroud was barged in the back by Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the box and Hazard converted the penalty.

Substitute Alex Iwobi pulled a goal back with a superb strike from outside the box in the 69th minute, only for Giroud to set up Hazard to restore the three-goal lead shortly afterwards.

Cech saved from Hazard and substitute Willian, before Arrizabalaga denied Lacazette at the other end and then Joe Willock curled wide from an excellent position as any slim hopes of an Arsenal comeback faded away.

Man of the match – Eden Hazard

If this is his final match for Chelsea then it was the perfect way to bow out. Hazard played a key role as Chelsea seized control of the game in the second half. He set up the second for Pedro before scoring from the penalty spot and then combining with Olivier Giroud to net again. He will be sorely missed by Chelsea if he leaves this summer.

Opta stats

• Chelsea registered their fifth major European competition final victory, with only Liverpool winning more among English clubs (eight).
• Arsenal conceded four goals in a European match for the first time since a 1-5 loss to Bayern Munich in March 2017 and were the first team to do so in a UEFA Cup/Europa League final since Middlesbrough lost 4-0 to Sevilla in the 2006 UEFA Cup final.
• Chelsea became the first team to win a major European title without losing a game during the campaign (W12 D3 L0) since Manchester United won the Champions League in 2007-08 without losing a game.
• Arsenal have now lost five of their six major UEFA European finals, including each of their last four in a row (1995 Cup Winners’ Cup, 2000 UEFA Cup, 2006 Champions League, 2019 Europa League).
• Olivier Giroud scored his 11th goal in the Europa League for Chelsea this season, becoming the first player to score 11 goals in major European competition for an English club since Alan Shearer scored 11 in 2004-05 for Newcastle United.
• Chelsea’s Pedro became the fifth player to score in a European Cup/Champions League and UEFA Cup/Europa League final, after Allan Simonsen, Dmitri Alenichev, Hernan Crespo and Steven Gerrard.
• Olivier Giroud’s 11 goals for Chelsea in major European competition is a record by a French player in a single European season, breaking the record held by Nestor Combin in 1963-64 (Cup Winners’ Cup) and Just Fontaine in 1958-59 (European Cup).
• In his final match, Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech conceded four goals in a match for only the third time in major European competition, only conceding more in one game (five against Bayern Munich in November 2015).

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