Chelsea turns on the style to beat Greeks

Ballack, Lampard and Kalou all score as Avraham Grant's Blues advance to quarterfinals.

By JEREMY LAST
grant 88 (photo credit: )
grant 88
(photo credit: )
Even a 3-0 thumping of Olympiakos in the Champions League may not be enough to silence Chelsea coach Avraham Grant's critics. The Blues played their hearts out at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night and easily overcame the Greek side which had held it to a 0-0 draw in the first leg. But although the result guaranteed a quarterfinal berth for Grant's Chelsea, the media vultures will likely continue to hover around the Israeli as they have since the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham in the League Cup final a week and a half ago. At Stamford Bridge, Carlo Cudicini replaced Petr Cech in goal after the Czech 'keeper picked up an injury in training. Michael Ballack put the English team ahead after only five minutes when he headed in a Frank Lampard cross. Ballack returned the favor 20 minutes later when his shot was saved by the Greek goalkeeper into the path of Lampard who tapped in. And Solomon Kalou grabbed a simple third from close range early in the second half. Wednesday's result followed Saturday's 4-0 defeat of West Ham United in the Premier League, but talk of discontent in the Chelsea camp continues to plague the club. Even though the team from West London has returned to form in style, the English newspapers are still full of talk that Grant will be moved back into the Director of Football role that he began working in at the start of the season before previous Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho's departure. Also Wednesday, Roma stunned Real Madrid, winning 2-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu and going through to the last eight with an aggregate score of 4-2. At press time Porto's match against German side Schalke 04 was in extra time after Lisandro Lopez scored a scorcher for the Portugese team to make the aggregate score 1-1. Liverpool's Champions League quarterfinal was put off till next week while the Reds played West Ham in the Premier League. Rafa Benitez's side leapfrogged rival Everton into second place in the league with a commanding 4-0 win at Anfield with Fernando Torres, scoring a hat trick.