Tonight saw three of the English teams continue on their progress in the Europa League all by a single goal over two legs whilst Liverpool crashed out due to an away goal.
The task was always going to be tricky for Liverpool at Anfield but the side started brightly and looked dangerous in the early stages. 19 minutes in however it was Zenit who took the lead and got the vital away goal. Hulk was able to capitalise when Jamie Carragher badly mishit a backpass, and he coolly slotted the ball past Reina. Liverpool struck back 10 minutes later though. Agger was brought down after a long run leaving Liverpool with a freekick close to the edge of the area. After a bit of moaning by the zenit players about the positioning of the ball, up stepped Luis Suarez to power it through a gap in the wall and get his side level on the night. Just before half time a well worked bit of passing down the left between Enrique and Henderson allowed a ball to be played across the box. Allen got on the end of it and put Liverpool ahead at the second attempt. Going in at halftime with a 2-1 lead there was a real sense of belief that Liverpool could get the two goals they needed to progress. Liverpool were denied what looked like a clear penalty to most early in the second half when the ball appeared to be handled by Hubocan but the referee waved play on. Just before the hour mark, Liverpool had another freekick and up stepped Suarez again to bend in an unstoppable strike past Malafeev. Hulk came closest to scoring again for Zenit with a freekick from range that whistled narrowly wide of Reina’s left hand post but Liverpool still looked most like scoring. A good effort from Steven Gerrard saw Malafeev pull off a fantastic save and Jonjo Shelvey struck into the side netting when he really should have done better. Despite the dominance of Liverpool it was Zenit who progressed and will now face Basel in the last 16.
It was a better night for the other three English sides in the tournament all going though by a one goal margin. Newcastle were outplayed in a tough match away to Ukranian side Metalist Kharkiv but despite creating less chances they got the games only breakthrough 64 minutes in when they were awarded a penalty and Shola Ameobi sent the keeper the wrong way. They now have a tough tie against Anzhi Makhachkala (yes I did have to check the spelling several times) in the last 16.
It was even tighter for Chelsea who despite taking a one goal lead back to Stamford bridge had to rely on a 92nd minute equaliser on the night to take them through. Sparta Prague had managed to cancel out Chelsea’s aggregate lead with a 17th minute goal from David Lafata. With Fernando Torres having another night to forget in from of goal it looked destined to go to extra time but Eden Hazard came up with the goal for Chelsea that saw them take their place in the next round where they will meet Steaua Bucharest, after the Romanian side overturned a two goal deficit from their first leg and beat Ajax on penalties.
Tighter still was the Spurs victory. 2-1 up from their home leg Spurs knew that losing 1-0 to Lyon would see them knocked out and when Maxime Gonalons headed home for the French side after 17 minutes they had it all to do. It was an evenly contested game and Spurs were finding Lyon hard to break down – the french side putting 10 men behind the ball whenever they lost possesion – but they finally made the breakthrough when Moussa Dembele produced a fantastic strike from 30 yards in the closing seconds of normal time. That goal was enough to get Spurs through to face Inter Milan, a side that Gareth Bale will no doubt look forward to facing.
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