“Olivier Giroud show “- this is how you can briefly describe what happened on Wednesday evening in the UEFA Champions League group E match between Sevilla i Chelsea. The French international scored four goals, and Frank Lampard’s team, despite nine changes in the basic squad, defeated Julen Lopetegui’s team 4-0. Victory Chelsea means that the Londoners secured their first place in the group by the turn before the end of the Champions League group stage.
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The Wednesday victory was secured by Giroud, who was in phenomenal shooting form. The French scored his first goal in the 8th minute when he used a pass from Kai Havertz. In the 54th minute, Giroud showed a clever lob over the opponents’ goalkeeper after Mateo Kovacicic played. 20 minutes later, the French scored a goal from a N’Golo Kante cross and ended in the 83rd minute when he used a penalty for a foul on himself.
Giroud’s historic performance!
Giroud not only gave Chelsea a spectacular victory, but also made a permanent mark on history. The Frenchman became the 15th player to score at least four goals in a single Champions League match. Earlier this was done by, among others Andriy Shevchenko, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimović or Cristiano Ronaldo.
Interestingly, Giroud is the oldest four goalscorer in a single Champions League game. On Wednesday, the Frenchman was exactly 34 years and 63 days old. The next places in this classification are occupied by Josip Ilicić, Ibrahimović and Lewandowski.
At the same time, Giroud became the oldest hat-trick scorer in the Champions League. The previous record holder was Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored a hat-trick at the age of 34 and 34 days.
The French also became the oldest three goalscorer in the European Cup since September 1965 and a match in which Ferenc Puskas defeated the Feyenoord goalkeeper three times.
Giroud also went down in Chelsea history. The Frenchman became only the second player in the club’s history with a hat-trick in the Champions League. Didier Drogba made such a feat 14 years ago. Thereby Giroud became of course the first Chelsea player in history to score four Champions League goals.
Chelsea will play at home against Krasnodar in the final round of the Champions League. In this group, however, everything is already clear. Londoners will take first place, Sevilla will be second, Krasnodar will be third and Rennes last.
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