Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Eden Hazard each scored in a game that saw the West London side lift the Europa League trophy and their opponents Arsenal miss out on next season's Champions League as a result. Giroud surpassed Just Fontaine as the highest French scorer in a single European season. Fontaine’s record had stood for 60 years.
Wednesday’s Europa League final saw each of Chelsea’s three goal-scorers set or equal records. All three of the players who scored for the Blues in Wednesday's final in Baku reached European or personal marks.
Former Gunner Giroud opened the scoring for the Blues, his 11th goal in the Europa League this season, tops in the competiton. No player has scored so many goals in a season in a major European competition for an English club since Alan Shearer for Newcastle United in 2004-05.
Pedro scored Chelsea’s second and in the process became just the fifth player to score in a final of both the European Cup or Champions League and the UEFA Cup or Europa League. Allan Simonsen, Hernan Crespo, Dmitri Alenichev and Steven Gerrard preceded the Spanish international. Pedro scored in the 2010-11 Champions League final, opening the scoring for Barcelona against Manchester United. Barca ran out 3-1 winners in that game.
Chelsea went one better against Arsenal on Wednesday, winning 4-1, with Eden Hazard netting his side’s final two goals. Hazard’s first was his 20th in all competitions for Chelsea, which is his highest in a single season for Chelsea. This is his seventh season at Stamford Bridge.
He also got the assist for Pedro’s second, which was his 17th of the year. That’s tied for the most by a Premier League player in all competitions this year. Many suspect that this will be Hazard’s final game in a Chelsea shirt, with Real Madrid expected to announce their capture of the Belgium international as soon as Monday. He was substituted as time ran down on the game and potentially his Chelsea career.
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