Zenit win gives Russians hope

Zenit beat BATE 2-0 to give themselves hope of qualifying for the last-16 of the Champions League.

Pogrebnyak and Danny on target for 10-man visitors

Zenit St Petersburg beat BATE Borisov 2-0 in Belarussia to give themselves hope of qualifying for the knock-out stage of the UEFA Champions League. The Uefa Cup holders are now just two points behind second-placed Real Madrid in Group H after goals by Pavel Pogrebnyak and Miguel Danny. The visitors started the brighter and had the first shot on goal in the seventh minute with a 35 yard effort from Radek Shirl which went just wide of the post. Then in the 12th minute, a BATE corner fell to Pavel Nekhaychik in the box but he had his left-footed shot saved by keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev. Three minutes later, Konstantin Zurianov's long range effort went just wide of the post for Zenit, while Anatoli Tymoschuk's low shot from outside the area had to be pushed around the post by the home keeper Sergey Veremko.

Deserved lead

But Zenit took a deserved lead on 34 minutes after hitting the home side on the break. Zurianov's pass sliced through the home defence and found Pogrebnyak unmarked to the left of the box and he slotted home. Vitaly Rodionov then had a double chance to draw the hosts level on 39 minutes, the first saved by the Zenit keeper and he then hit the rebound wide of the post. And in first-half stoppage time, the home side's Igor Stasevich saw his 30 yard free-kick take a slight deflection before keeper Malafeev got down well to save. In the second period, BATE started the stronger, with Gennady Bliznuk putting a shot wide of the visitor's post after his free-kick had rebounded off the wall on 58 minutes.

Sending-off

Zenit were reduced to ten men on 73 minutes when Sebastian Puygrenier deservedly got a second yellow card for bringing down Rodionov on the right edge of the box, as he was attempting to run through. Sergei Krivets put a free-kick from just outside the box over the bar with eight minutes to go for the hosts, while Miguel Danny blasted well over from close range for the visitors three minutes later. Soon afterwards, Krivets shot was deflected out for a corner before Danny got Zenit's second with a fine individual goal deep into injury time.

BATE Borisov	Team Statistics	Zenit St Petersburg
0	Goals	2
0	1st Half Goals	1
2	Shots on Target	4
6	Shots off Target	6
4	Blocked Shots	1
10	Corners	3
9	Fouls	27
0	Offsides	2
0	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	1
68.1	Passing Success	70.7
24	Tackles	29
83.3	Tackles Success	86.2
53.5	Possession	46.5
52	Territorial Advantage	48