|
ZENIT DENT LEVERKUSEN HOPES
FC Zenit are set to reach the YEFA Cup semifinals after they defeated
Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the first leg of two-round battle at BayArena.
| |
|
|
Photo: english.sport-express.ru
|
The Russian side looked more dangerous team throughout the
whole match and made assured start with Andrei Arshavin opening the score
on the 20th minute.
Leverkusen managed to fight back this goal thanks to first-half goal from
Stefan Kiessling, however Zenit continued pressing the opponents' defence.
Pavel Pogrebnyak took the lead in the UEFA Cup scoring charts as he scored
the second goal seven minutes into the second period.
The German side was punished twice more after the break with Alexander
Anyukov and Igor Denisov delivered the final stop to the game and earned
a vital 4-1 away win.
Michael Skibbe's champs will find tough to advance into the next stage
of the tournament as they will travel to St. Petersburg next Thursday.
Zenit Dutch manager Dick Advocaat, who had to watch the game from the
stands as he served the last part of three-match ban, shared his views
on his club's triumphal pace in Leverkusen.
"We deserved this victory, because we produced wonderful performance",
said Advocaat at the post-match press-conference.
"We tried to show that we were not going to give up and kept on pressing
their defence that gave us a confident victory."
"The score is brilliant, but we still had a number of opportunities
to score more goals."
"To my mind it was not our best game in the UEFA Cup campaign this
season, since we played well against Marseille."
"Nevertheless this match showed that Zenit's progress is hard to
ignore."
Sport
Express Daily, 04 Apr 2008
|
|
