Zenit St. Petersburg vs. FC Twente: Zenit crash out of the UEFA Europa League despite winning the second leg
Zenit St. Petersburg beat http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Twente-c39233 2-0 in the second leg of the round-of-16 of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday evening.
Despite losing the match, Twente qualified for the quarter finals as they won the first leg 3-0 last week.
Luciano Spalletti made several changes to his Zenit team that lost in the first leg. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aleksandr-Kerzhakov-c4569 started upfront in a 4-5-1 formation.
Twente made only one change from the first leg win; Douglas replaced http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oguchi-Onyewu-c28332 in the defence for the Swiss side.
The visitors looked to extend their aggregate lead early on the game, as Danny Landzaat played a delightful pass to find Nacer Chadli in the box, who volleyed his first time effort wide of the post.
Zenit continued to apply pressure as they had two penalty shouts turned down in the opening 15 minutes of the game.
The hosts opened the scoring in the 16th minute after a prolonged spell of pressure. Midfielder, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roman-Shirokov-c31645, who struck the cross bar with his first time effort but slotted the rebound calmly into the
net to make it 1-0 and 1-3 on aggregate.
Moments after goal, Onyewu had a brilliant chance to kill off the game but he headed over the bar from Yuri Zhenov’s goal.
Zenit doubled their lead for the evening in the 38th minute, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Danko-Lazovic-c10188 made a good run into the box and saw his shot deflected off a Twente defender and it fell into the path of Kerzhakov, who volleyed it into the back of the net to make it
2-0 and 2-3 on aggregate.
The Russian champions were on the verge of completing a remarkable comeback after pulling two goals back.
Twente had a fantastic opportunity to open their scoring but Luuk de Jong’s shot from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-Rosales-c31362 fine pass went over the bar.
Six minutes after the resumption of second half, Zenit could have drawn level on aggregate but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nikolay-Mihaylov-c28019 fisted the ball away with a splendid save from Kerzhakov.
The Russians continued to dominate the game but the condition of the pitch deteriorated later in the match, and it affected their free style of passing.
Twente’s defensive wall held onto a slender aggregate lead to qualify for the last eight round.
The draws for the quarter finals will be held in Nyon on 18th March, Friday.
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