Everton left it late to secure top spot in Uefa Cup Group A as they earned a 1-0 win over ten-man Zenit St Petersburg at Goodison Park.
Toffees earn 1-0 win to progress to knock-out stages
Everton left it late to secure top spot in Uefa Cup Group A as they earned a 1-0 win over ten-man Zenit St Petersburg at Goodison Park.
An 84th minute Tim Cahill goal, combined with Nurnberg's victory over AZ Alkmaar in the group's other game, means Everton will finish in first place and will avoid the drop outs from the UEFA Champions League in the knock-out stages.
The first-half was an entertaining, if at times niggling, affair and was marked by the game's moment of controversy as Icelandic referee Kristinn Jakobsson adjudged Nicolas Lombaerts to have handled a Cahill effort at goal inside the 18-yard area.
Lombaerts was shown a straight red card and a penalty was awarded, but Zenit felt justice was done as Mikel Arteta blazed over from the spot.
Zenit, despite their numerical disadvantage, continued to threaten and the visitors could have taken the lead shortly after the interval when Pavel Pogrebniak was denied by a fine save from Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Workload
However, Everton had their winner when Cahill pounced late on to prod home from close range after Zenit goalkeeper Viatcheslav Malafeev had saved well from Joleon Lescott.
Everton manager David Moyes seemed to have selected a side with his club's heavy workload in mind.
The Toffees, facing eight games in 24 days, have Fulham at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Saturday and face a trip to West Ham in the Carling Cup quarter-finals next Wednesday, so Moyes opted to rest players.
Joseph Yobo was out with an ankle problem but keeper Howard recovered from a virus.
Leighton Baines came in at full-back while James McFadden had his first start for over a month, and Phil Jagielka replaced Yobo in defence.
High tempo
Everton's high tempo worried the Russians from the start, Andrew Johnson hounding slow defenders while McFadden got away from a labouring Martin Skrtel - and survived a desperate lunge - but wasted the chance in the box.
South Korean defender Kim Dong Jin was forced to clear off the line from an Arteta hook, and then desperately head clear from Cahill from the follow-up.
Zenit's main avenue of attack was down the right through Argentinian Alejandro Dominguez, but the delivery was poor.
After 19 minutes the nastiness started when striker Pogrebniak was booked for a late challenge on Lescott.
But that was nothing to the uproar after 29 minutes when Everton were awarded a penalty and Zenit suffered what was a very unfortunate red card as Belgian defender Lombaerts threw himself in the way of a Cahill shot, the ball looking to hit his shoulder before deflecting behind.
Influential
However, after the arguing had died down, Arteta drove the penalty over the bar.
Radek Shirl was then booked for a wild challenge on Arteta before Viacheslav Malafeev needed to produce a fine save to turn away an Arteta 20 yard free-kick.
Everton came close after 37 minutes Lee Carsley hit the post from 25 yards, before Johnson was booked for going in feet first on keeper Malafeev a minute later.
The influential Dominguez was then carried off four minutes from the break with an ankle problem after a heavy challenge from Phil Neville and Alexander Gorshkov eventually came on as a replacement.
Zenit hardly looked as if they were down to 10 men as the second period began.
After 50 minutes Pogrebniak broke away to run 30 yards before seeing Howard parry away his shot and three minutes later Andrey Arshavin's clever chip put Konstatin Zyrianov clear in the box, but he fired over the bar.
Everton responded by taking off McFadden and sending on Victor Anichebe, but they still toiled for the breakthrough, and Zenit continued to look dangerous on the break.
But after 84 minutes Everton finally got their goal. Arteta's corner dropped into a packed box and Lescott's shot was saved by Malafeev on the line, only for Cahill to force the ball into the roof of the net.
| Everton |
Team Statistics |
Zenit St Petersburg |
| 1 |
Goals |
0 |
| 0 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 5 |
Shots on Target |
1 |
| 8 |
Shots off Target |
2 |
| 7 |
Blocked Shots |
5 |
| 14 |
Corners |
1 |
| 18 |
Fouls |
17 |
| 2 |
Offsides |
1 |
| 1 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
1 |
| 80.3 |
Passing Success |
69.6 |
| 16 |
Tackles |
27 |
| 81.2 |
Tackles Success |
77.8 |
| 58.2 |
Possession |
41.8 |
| 59.2 |
Territorial Advantage |
40.8 |
|
