Chelsea knocked Sporting Lisbon out of the Champions League with an easy 3-1 win, despite resting many key players including John Terry, Eden Hazard, Willian and Oscar. Goals from Cesc Fàbregas, André Schürrle and John Obi Mikel gave Chelsea the win.
Chelsea took an early lead through a penalty, which was converted by Fàbregas for his third Chelsea goal. The penalty was a soft one to give away by Ricardo Esgaio, as he foolishly went in for a tackle - when there was no real danger for the Sporting Lisbon defence - and Filipe Luís used his experience to nutmeg Esgaio and take the foul to win the penalty.
Moments later in the 16th minute it was 2-0 to José Mourinho's altered side. The spine of the Chelsea midfield - Nemanja Matić - played a ball into Schürrle, who turned on the edge of the box to create space for a low-driven shot which found the bottom corner of the net. It was the German international's first Champions League goal this season.
Sporting were causing the Chelsea defence some difficulties, with Algerian international striker Islam Slimani - who scored two goals at this year's World Cup - nearly found the net at Stamford Bridge with a header that just went wide of the post.
Meanwhile, minutes after Chelsea nearly had their third and Schürrle nearly had his second with a great first-time volley from a bouncing cross, unfortunately for the German he was denied by a great save by Rui Patrício.
Diego Capel came close in the 36th minute, after a period of tedious football from both sidese, however he was denied well by veteran goalkeeper Petr Čech. Chelsea went into half-time in cruise control, firmly ahead 2-0. As it stood, if Maribor continued to prevent Schalke from winning, Sporting would qualify no matter what the final result was at Stamford Bridge.
Five minutes into the second-half Sporting livened the game up with a goal to bring them back in to the game. A cross was cleared by the Chelsea defence straight into the path of Jonathan Silva, who proceeded to control the ball with his chest and strike the ball into the bottom corner on the half-volley.
After Sporting pulling one goal back, Chelsea increased the pace of their play in order to regain their two goal lead. Their third came from a deep costless-kick, which was flicked on at the near post by Gary Cahill and tapped in from close-range by Mikel for a rare goal by the Nigerian international.
With 30 minutes to go, Sporting were in real danger of not qualifying for the knockout stages as Roberto Di Matteo's Schalke side took the lead in Maribor through a goal by Max Meyer. This meant that if Schalke won their game, Sporting would need two goals to draw the game and go through in second place.
Chelsea closed the game out comfortably and gave a debut to youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has been at the club's academy since the age of eight, coming on for Fàbregas.
Chelsea progressed into the knockout stages as group leaders with 14 points out of a possible 18. Whereas, Sporting finished third due to losing to Chelsea and Schalke's 1-0 win in Maribor. They will be one of the many Champions League teams who finished third in the group stages that will go out of the Champions League and into the Europa League knockout stages.