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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE WRAP: Arsenal make it 16 on end, Chelsea claim top and Bayer miss out against Barcelona

The group stage of the 2015/16 UEFA Champions League was completed on Wednesday night with the Round of 16 combatants now sorted.


Arsenal claimed a convincing 3-0 win over Olympiacos in Piraeus to leapfrog the Greek club into second place in Group F thanks to a superb hat-trick from Olivier Giroud.

The Frenchman headed home Aaron Ramsey's cross in the 29th minute before producing a quality finish from Joel Campbell's reverse pass four minutes into the second half.

The treble was complete with just over 20 minutes remaining when he coolly converted from the penalty spot to send Arsene Wenger's men through to the knockout stages of Europe's elite club competition for the 16th straight season.

Arsenal will join Bayern Munich after the German giants comfortably ran out group winners with a routine 2-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia courtesy of a brace from Robert Lewandowski.

In Group E, Bayer Leverkusen failed to achieve the win they needed against Barcelona to book their place in the next phase by drawing 1-1 with the reigning European champions.

Lionel Messi opened the scoring for the Catalan club when he rounded Bayer keeper Bernd Leno after a defence-splitting pass from Ivan Rakitic before Javier Hernandez notched his 12th goal in his past 11 outings when firing home just three minutes later.

Barcelona remained top of the group and will be joined by AS Roma in the next phase after the Italians drew 0-0 with BATE Borisov, allowing them to finish ahead of Bayer following the 3-2 result to the Giallorossi in early November.

Group G saw Chelsea clinch top position with a 2-0 victory over FC Porto which came courtesy of an own-goal from Ivan Marcano and a second-half strike from Willian.

The Blues finished two points ahead of Dynamo Kyiv who defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 to bypass Porto on their way to the last 16.

And Group H had Gent become the first Belgian club in 15 years to reach the knockout stages thanks to their 2-1 win over group winners Zenit Saint Petersburg as Valencia slumped to a 2-0 home defeat to Lyon in Gary Neville's first game as manager.


2015/16 UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - GROUP STAGE SCORES

Group E

Bayer Leverkusen (GER): 1 (Javier Hernandez 23')
Barcelona (SPN): 1 (Lionel Messi 20')
BayArena, Leverkusen, Germany - 29,412


AS Roma (ITA): 0
BATE Borisov (BLR): 0
Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy - 29,489


Group F

Dinamo Zagreb (CRO): 0
Bayern Munich (GER): 2 (Robert Lewandowski 61'/64')
Stadion Maksimir, Zagreb, Croatia - 19,681


Olympiacos (GRE): 0
Arsenal (ENG): 3 (Olivier Giroud 29'/49'/(PEN) 67')
Karaiskakis Stadium, Piraeus, Greece - 31,388


Group G

Dynamo Kyiv (UKR): 1 (Denys Harmash 16')
Maccabi Tel Aviv (ISR): 0
Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine - 475


Chelsea (ENG): 2 (Ivan Marcano (OG) 12', Willian 52')
FC Porto (POR): 0
Stamford Bridge, London, England - 41,096


Group H

Valencia (SPN): 0
Lyon (FRA): 2 (Maxwel Cornet 37', Alexandre Lacazette 76')
Mestalla, Valencia, Spain - 32,494


Gent (BEL): 2 (Laurent Depoitre 18', Danijel Milicevic 78')
Zenit Saint Petersburg (RUS): 1 (Artyom Dzyuba 65')
Ghelamco Arena, Ghent, Belgium - 19,978

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