Sport category: Soccer Sevilla crush nine-man Zenit St Petersburg
Date: 30-03-2006 21:57
Sevilla took a giant stride towards the last four of the UEFA Cup when they beat nine-man Zenit St Petersburg 4-1 at home in the first leg of their quarter-final on Thursday. A brace from Javier Saviola, a Jose Luis Marti penalty and a late strike from Adriano Correia gave the Andalucians the win.
Zenit had Norwegian defender Erik Hagen and influential midfielder Andrei Arshavin sent off in the second half.
Sevilla, currently fifth in the Primera Liga, dominated the opening exchanges at the Sanchez Pizjuan and Zenit keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev was forced to make sharp saves to deny Saviola and midfielder Jordi in the early minutes.
However, there was little he could do to stop the opening goal in the 15th minute when the Argentine scored with a low header inside the far post after a corner.
Zenit equalised on the stroke of halftime when striker Alexander Kerzhakov, who scored twice when the Russians beat Sevilla 2-1 at home in the group stage in November, headed into the top corner after midfielder Andrei Arshavin had crossed from the left.
Sevilla restored their lead from the penalty spot early in the second half after Hagen had brought down Frederic Kanoute.
The Andalucians had missed three penalties in their last two games but this time Marti made no mistake when he sent Malafeev the wrong way.
Hagen was sent off and the home side took advantage when Saviola made it 3-1 10 minutes from time after some brilliant work by substitute Enzo Maresca on the edge of the area.
Zenit had Arshavin sent off in the dying minutes and things went from bad to worse when Brazilian midfielder Adriano Correia hit a fourth with a close-range strike in stoppage time.
The winners of the tie will meet either Schalke 04 or Levski Sofia in the semi-finals. Schalke won the first leg of their tie 3-1 Sofia earlier on Thursday.
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