Champions

Two goals from Didier Drogba steered Chelsea to an emphatic 3-0 victory over Valencia and top spot in Group E at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday as they moved into the Champions League knockout phase for the ninth consecutive season.

Valencia, who hammered Genk 7-0 in their last Champions League match, would have qualified with a win or score draw but though they had plenty of possession either side of halftime, they rarely threatened to score, although Jordi Alba hit the outside of the post soon after Chelsea went ahead.

Valencia still played some attractive football but with little end product although goalkeeper Petr Cech was forced into a making a superb save to deny David Albelda who smacked in a sizzling long range effort after 10 minutes.

Sofiane Feghouli also brought a good save from Cech in the second half but they now will have to re-align their sights on the Europa League.

"We have to focus on the Europa League now, it’s a new objective and we will just have to keep fighting," said Valencia's Basque coach Unai Emery. "We did what we could, we had a lot of possession, we created four good chances tonight, but we have to accept we were well beaten."

Drogba's early goal came after Daniel Sturridge's long cross from the right was pulled back by ex-Valencia winger Juan Mata.

The pass found the muscular Ivorian who switched the ball from his right to left foot and fired wide of goalkeeper Diego Alves who got a hand to the ball but could not stop it going in.

Defensive hesitation by Victor Ruiz 15 minutes later allowed Ramires to poke in the second after a surging run from Drogba and Chelsea completed one of their best performances of the season with Drogba powering through and finishing skillfully for the third after 74 minutes.