Chelsea forward Oliver Giroud writes history for the club and for himself

Olivier Giroud was on the scoresheet for Chelsea as they crushed Slavia Praha to book a place for the semi-finals where they are expected to meet German side Frankfurt.

It was a hard fought match win for the London based club, but that aside Giroud was making history for himself and the club alike.

The French international, Olivier Giroud became the first Chelsea player to score ten goals in a European campaign by netting in the first half of their Europa League quarter-final second leg against Slavia Prague.

The 32-year-old has been something of a Europa League specialist for Maurizio Sarri this season, starting more games in the competition (nine) than in the Premier League (seven).

Sarri has been rewarded by consistently prolific performances from Giroud in the Europa League and he got in on the act just 17 minutes into the game by tapping in Pedro’s low cross.

Remarkably, that goal was already Chelsea’s third of the game as a strike from Pedro and own goal from Simon Deli had Chelsea 2-0 up and cruising after just ten minutes.

Giroud provided the assist for Pedro’s opening goal taking him to three in the Europa League this season, meaning he has 13 direct goal involvements (ten goals, three assists) overall.

Although Giroud has been a regular supplier of goals for Chelsea in the Europa League, he has struggled to nail down a starting place in the Premier League during his 18-month spell at Stamford Bridge.

The World Cup winner was initially behind Alvaro Morata in the pecking order and has been second-choice to Gonzalo Higuain since the Argentine arrived in January.

With his contract expiring in the summer, Giroud has admitted that he has received offers to play elsewhere but Chelsea will be hoping to convince him to stay put given his output in the Europa League.



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