!!!OUT!!! WE ARE FREAKING OUT!! + Other Results

Thursday, 26 February 09, 04:46 PM · Comments(2)

Oh, this picture is painful to look at. :(

UEFA Cup holders FC Zenit St. Petersburg made light of the absence of captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, with goals from Igor Semshov and Viktor Fayzulin giving them a second 2-1 win against VfB Stuttgart. This was the same result as the first leg.

Substitute strikes
Semshov put Dick Advocaat's side ahead in the 42nd minute, and while Timo Gebhart pulled one back for the Bundesliga club with ten minutes to go, substitute Fayzulin capped a measured performance to set up a Round of 16 tie with Udinese Calcio. The Russian team will play the second leg at home.

Counterattacking force
While Tymoshchuk's suspension left Zenit without their inspirational captain, they proved to be dangerous on the counterattack, and home goalkeeper Jens Lehmann was forced to save from Konstantin Zyryanov's left-footed strike after 13 minutes. Mario Gómez responded for Stuttgart, firing just over from Cacau's pass.

First-time shot
Cacau then clipped the Zenit post with a shot from the edge of the area and the Brazilian also missed from close range after Gómez's chipped delivery sent him through on goal. That proved to be costly as Zenit went in front against the run of play, with Danny's high cross from the touchline being dispatched by Semshov first-time past Lehmann from inside the box.

Hopes dashed
Zenit defended solidly after the interval but their rearguard was finally breached as a lacklustre attempted clearance allowed Gebhart to dart into the area, careering past three defenders before beating Vyacheslav Malafeev with his left foot. Stuttgart hopes were soon dashed though, Danny supplying the killer ball once more for Fayzulin to stab into the empty net with Lehmann already beaten.

Kristen's Verdict: I will give VfB the benefit of the doubt. They had a very weakened squad. Matthieu Delpierre (ankle ligament tear), Arthur Boka (knee ligament tear), Yildiray Bastürk (calf strain), and Ludovic Magnin (cold/flu like symptoms) were all missing from the squad. But, it will be pretty awesome to see Zenit repeat, if they can. I would love to see them repeat. Anything is possible.

During the post match press confrence, VfB manager Markus Babbel said:

"This defeat is very frustrating because the team played quite well. We controlled the game and had a couple of good opportunities. It was very frustrating that we went behind due to a lapse in concentration. We took some time to get6 going in the second half but after we made the substitutions we increased the pressure again and got the equaliser. We didn't play calmly enough after that and operated with too many long balls. It's not unusual to get caught on the break. Looking at both games, the tie was evenly matched. It is the cleverer team that has progressed."

Mario Gomez stated:

Of course I'm disappointed. In the first leg we were the better team and we should have taken more from it. We had our chances tonight too. Us strikers got some good passes but we didn't make use of them. We had chances in the first half but then got caught on the break. Things have been going well of late but we dropped the big points and have now been eliminated from the DFB and UEFA Cups."

Finally, Cacau said:

"In the first half we put on a good performance but then got caught out with an unlucky goal against us. We fought on after that and gave our all. After we'd equalised we came close to getting a second, and created some chances to raise our hopes. On the whole we played well but we didn't have the luck on our side."

~~~Other Matches (bolded teams advance; middle # is the total agg.)~~~

Dynamo Kyiv (away goals)	3-3	Valencia
Zenit	4-2	Stuttgart
Olympiacos	2-5	St Etienne
Aston Villa	1-3	CSKA Moskva
Bremen (away goals)	3-3	Milan
Sampdoria	0-3	Metalist
NEC	0-4	Hamburg
PSG	5-1	Wolfsburg
Bordeaux	3-4	Galatasaray
AaB	6-1	Deportivo
Braga	4-1	Standard
Lech	3-4	Udinese
Shakhtar	3-1	Tottenham
København	3-4	Man. City
Marseille (7-6p)	1-1	Twente
Fiorentina	1-2	Ajax