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Defending champion Zenit knocked out of UEFA Cup

DEFENDING champion Zenit St. Petersburg was knocked out of the UEFA Cup yesterday despite a 1-0 win over Udinese.

Zenit captain Anatoly Tymoshchuk scored in the first half but Udinese advanced to the quarterfinals 2-1 on aggregate.

There were no former winners left in European football's second-tier tournament after Galatasaray and CSKA Moscow were also eliminated. Hamburg scored three second-half goals to win 3-2 at 2000 champion Galatasaray and progress 4-3 on aggregate, while CSKA Moscow was eliminated 2-1 on aggregate after a 2-0 loss at Shakhtar Donetsk.

Dynamo Kiev, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City also advanced to join Wednesday's qualifiers, Marseille and Werder Bremen, in the quarterfinal draw in Nyon, Switzerland, on Friday.

Udinese forward Fabio Quagliarella twice headed over the Zenit bar before Tymoshchuk scored in the 34th minute after a goalmouth scramble.

Tymoshchuk directed a header from point-blank range to the left of Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic, who clawed the ball away only after it had crossed the line.

The Russian team could have scored a second goal and evened the score at 2-2 in the 38th but Viktor Fayzulin poked the ball over the bar from four meters (yards) after Konstantin Ziryanov's through pass.

"We can just be happy that we managed to play with and eliminate the champions in Zenit," Udinese midfielder Gaetano D'Agostino said. "That's a source of great satisfaction."

Udinese is the only Italian club left in European competition so its progress is good news for a country seeking to maintain its status in UEFA's rankings and hang onto four Champions League places.

Galatasaray looked to be heading through to the quarterfinals after Harry Kewell added a 42nd-minute penalty to the away goal his team scored in last week's 1-1 draw.

Milan Baros then put Galatasaray ahead 2-0 and up 3-1 on aggregate two minutes into the second half but Jose Pablo Guerrero scored twice in four minutes to even the score and Ivica Olic struck his seventh UEFA Cup goal in the final minute.

Dynamo Kiev scraped past Metalist Kharkiv on away goals after a 3-2 loss at its Ukrainian rival. Dynamo Kiev, which won last week's first leg 1-0, was on the verge of being eliminated until Metalist defender Andriy Berezovchuk scored an own goal with 11 minutes remaining.

Shakhtar Donetsk was the other Ukrainian team to make it through after overturning a 1-0 deficit by beating 2005 champion CSKA Moscow 2-0. Fernandinho scored a 54th-minute penalty before Luiz Adriano put the home side ahead on aggregate with a right-footed shot at the near post.

Paris Saint-Germain's Guillaume Hoarau scored a header in the 81st for a 1-0 win at Braga that put his team through by the same score, while Manchester City beat Aalborg 4-3 in a penalty shootout.

Aalborg scored twice in the last five minutes of regular time to make it 2-0 and 2-2 on aggregate, but City maintained its status as the only English club left in the tournament after goalkeeper Shay Given made two saves in the shootout.

"The first tie should have had it dead and buried but we've done it the hard way," Given said. "It's the luck of the draw when you're facing penalties."



 

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