LONDON (AFP) - Frank Lampard eased the pressure on Avram Grant as his dynamic display helped Chelsea cruise into the Champions League quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos on Wednesday.

Grant would have faced a fight to keep his job if Chelsea had lost in the last 16 second leg at Stamford Bridge, but Lampard set up Michael Ballack's opener, scored the second himself and laid on Salomon Kalou's third in a 3-0 aggregate victory.

After his side's lacklustre League Cup final defeat against Tottenham, Grant looked a beleaguered figure and stood accused of failing to deliver on the big occasion. His critics couldn't fault the Israeli here.

To say Olympiakos offered limited opposition would be an understatement, but Grant's decision to leave Nicolas Anelka on the bench was vindicated and even Lampard and Ballack finally combined to good effect.

The tie was over inside half an hour as Chelsea advanced to the last eight for the fourth time in five years.

Grant said: "I'm happy of course. We won, we are in the next round and played good football.

"First we knew Olympiakos always score away so we knew they were very dangerous, so I'm happy the team played very mature.

"They were patient, held the ball most of the time and were quick when we needed to be. It was clever football."

Olympiakos coach Panagiotis Lemonis added: "After it was 2-0 obviously it was very difficult. I said the first 20 minutes would be important.

"It was proved that we couldn't respond. But we played against a very experienced team."

Grant had suffered a late blow when Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech was ruled out with an ankle injury.

But Chelsea hold the Champions League's best defensive record this season and hadn't lost at home for two years, so even Cech's absence wasn't likely to disturb them too much.

So it proved. They took the game to the Greek champions from the start and went ahead after just five minutes.

Lampard, a transfer target for Juventus, emphasised why Chelsea will surely move heaven and earth to keep him. The England midfielder's precise cross from the left picked out Ballack and he took advantage of slack marking to bury a header past Antonios Nikopolidis.

Although Olympiakos had frustrated Chelsea in the goalless first leg two weeks ago, it was all too easy for the Blues here.

They went close to a second goal after a flowing move involving Lampard, Kalou and Joe Cole sliced through the visitors defence. Didier Drogba's wild volley didn't do justice to the move but his side's superiority was clear.

It was only a matter of time before Chelsea killed the tie and Lampard duly delivered in the 25th minute.

Once again Olympiakos failed to clear their lines and Cole's header gave Ballack a sight of goal. Nikopolidis could only block the German's shot and Lampard tapped-in.

Lampard was frustrated when Grant left him out for the first leg but he was making up for lost time now. He laid on the third goal in the 48th minute.

His corner flicked off Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho as Olympiakos stood statuesque. Eventually it reached Kalou and the Ivory Coast striker bundled home from close range.

Lampard should have added a fourth goal moments later but dragged his shot wide. It was just about the only thing he got wrong all night.

It took an hour for Lemonis's side to register their first shot and even then Chelsea responded with a more incisive raid. Drogba burst through and finished well, only to see his strike ruled out for offside.

Nikopolidis denied Cole and Claude Makelele in quick succession but Chelsea had already done enough to buy Grant a moments' peace.