10 Mar 2010

Arsenal move to quarter-finals with ease

6:27 pm on 10 March 2010

A hat-trick from Nicklas Bendtner helped the English football club Arsenal to a 5-nil thumping of Portugal's Porto, sending the Gunners through to the Champions League quarter-finals for the third consecutive year.

Arsenal lost the first leg in Porto 2-1, but the convincing win completed a 6-2 aggregate victory for the home team.

Porto's quarter-final hopes vanished within 25 minutes as Denmark striker Bendtner struck twice to have Arsenal ahead 2-nil at half- time.

Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue were on target in the second half, and Bendtner completed his hat-trick with a stoppage-time penalty.

Arsenal were joined in the Champions League top eight by Germany's Bayern Munich, despite their 3-2 defeat at Italy's Fiorentina.

Bayern Munich won the first leg 2-1 and today's match brought the aggregate score between the two sides to 4-all, but the German side move through on the away goal rule.