Holders Zenit and ex-champs CSKA crash in UEFA Cup

By John Bagratuni
21:35, March 19th 2009
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Hamburg - Title holders Zenit St Petersburg were dumped by Udinese and the 2005 winners CSKA Moscow crashed against Skakhtar Donetsk on a bad Thursday for Russia in the UEFA Cup round of 16.

Zenit won 1-0 on the night but that was not good enough to reverse last week's 2-0 defeat in Italy as Udinese made a European quarter-final for the first time.

That also applied to Donetsk, who rebounded from a 1-0 first-leg loss in the Russian capital with a 2-0 home win over CSKA.

Donetsk are not the only Ukrainian club left in the competition as Dynamo Kiev won a Ukrainian duel with Metalist Kharkiv on away goals, fighting back from two goals down twice in a 3-2 defeat in Kharkiv after a 1-0 home win last week.

Werder Bremen and Olympique Marseille won their round of 16 ties on Wednesday. The other three games were scheduled for later Thursday: Galatasaray Istanbul vs SV Hamburg, Aalborg BK vs Manchester City and Braga vs Paris St Germain.

The quarter- and semi-final draw is on Friday en route to the May 20 final in Istanbul.

Zenit lacked the flair and attacking power of the last season as they were unable to rebound from the two-goal defeat in Udine.

Captain Anatoliy Tymoshckuk broke the deadlock in the 29th minute with a header off Viktor Fayzulin's corner but Zenit then tried in vain to get the vital second goal which would have at least forced extra time.

At the same time CSKA had to bow to Donetsk and its Brazilians. Fernandinho put the hosts ahead with a 54th-minute penalty after being fouled by Pavel Mameev and Luiz Adriano's close range effort 16 minutes later saw Shakhtar through.

In Kharkiv, Valentyn Sliusar opened the scoring in the 29th minute, with Brazilian striker Jaja on a 56th-minute freekick and Argentina's Walter Anibal Acevedo in the 70th getting the others.

But Croatian Goran Sabljic in 68th and Serbian substitute Milos Ninkovic with a low shot in the 79th minute made sure that the former Cup Winners' Cup champions Kiev had the last laugh.

Kiev advanced on away goals the second straight time after eliminating Spain's Valencia in the same way in the previous round.



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