PARIS, France, February 22 – Five-times European Cup winners Liverpool came up just short Thursday as they crashed out of the Europa League on away goals at the hands of Russian outfit Zenit Saint Petersburg despite a 3-1 win at Anfield.
Two goals down from the first leg, Liverpool looked out for the count after veteran defender Jamie Carragher fluffed an attempted backpass and Brazilian Hulk slipped home the opener to make it 3-0 on aggregate for the visitors.
But Liverpool roared back with two goals from Luis Suarez with Joe Allen netting another in between, but the extra goal would not come as Zenit reached the last 16.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was defiant, saying: “We may have lost the battle tonight, but in terms of the war and going forward we’re very much winning.”
Deposed European champions Chelsea had to settle for a home draw against Sparta Prague having won the away leg 1-0 after Eden Hazard’s late effort cancelled out David Lafata’s opener.
Chelsea captain John Terry said: “We’re delighted to go through, it wasn’t our best performance but we’re through and that’s all that matters.”
Aside from Liverpool’s anguish it was a successful night for the English contingent with a last-gasp goal from Mousa Dembele booking a last 16 berth for Tottenham, a superlative strike rescuing a 3-2 aggregate win over French hosts Lyon after a 1-1 draw.
Spurs, who now face Inter Milan, had won the opening encounter 2-1 but trailed for much of the match to a 17th-minute goal from Maxime Gonalons before Dembele struck to save the Londoners from going the way of Liverpool.
Newcastle thanked Shola Ameobi’s third European goal of the season, a penalty, for a 1-0 win at Metalist Kharkiv, the Ukrainians who held the Magpies to a goalless stalemate on Tyneside last week.
Newcastle were under the cosh for much of the match and Dutch keeper Tim Krul made several top drawer saves, before Ameobi struck on 64 minutes for a crucial away goal after keeper Olexandr Goryainov upended Moussa Sissoko.
The English side will face Russia’s Anzhi Makhachkala for a quarter-final spot.
Spoiling matters for Tottenham was the fact that seven people had Wednesday night sustained minor injuries when visiting fans were attacked by a group of 50 masked men who burst into a Lyon bar throwing chairs and stones, local officials said.
Elsewhere, Russia’s Rubin Kazan put out holders Atletico Madrid 2-1 on aggregate despite Falcao giving the Spaniards the win by the only goal on the night.
Inter, European Cup winners in 2010, went through after a 3-0 romp at 10-man Romanians Cluj, who had Mario Camora red-carded late on, for a 5-0 aggregate success.
Colombian star Fredy Guarin scored a brace for Inter with Marco Benassi adding the third.
Germany’s Stuttgart won 2-0 at Belgium’s Genk for a 3-1 aggregate win with Arthur Boka and Christian Gentner scoring for the Bundesliga side.
Italy’s Lazio defeated German rivals Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0 with Antonio Andreva and Alvaro Gonzalez the scorers in the first half as the Romans progressed 5-3 overall.
COLLATED RESULTS
At London
Chelsea (ENG) 1 (Hazard 90+1) Sparta Prague 1 (Lafata 17)
Chelsea win 2-1 on aggregate
At Liverpool
Liverpool 3 (Suarez 28, 59, Allen 43) Zenit St. Petersburg 1 (Hulk 19)
3-3 on aggregate; Zenit win on away goals
At Kharkiv
Metalist Kharkiv (UKR) 0 Newcastle (ENG) 1 (Ameobi 64)
Newcastle win 1-0 on aggregate
At Lyon
Lyon (FRA) 1 (Gonalons 16) Tottenham (ENG) 1 (Dembele 90)
Tottenham win 3-2 on aggregate
At Cluj
CFR Cluj (ROM) 0 Inter Milan (ITA) 3 (Guarin 22, 45+2, Benassi 88)
Inter win 5-0 on aggregate
At Moscow
Rubin Kazan (RUS) 0 Atletico Madrid 1 (Falcao 84)
Rubin Kazan win 2-1 on aggregate
At Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipro (UKR) 1 (Seleznyov 76-pen) FC Basel (SUI) 1 (Schar 81-pen)
Basel win 3-1 on aggregate
At Genk
Genk (BEL) 0 VfB Stuttgart (GER) 2 (Boka 45, Gentner 58)
Stuttgart win 3-1 on aggregate
At Hanover
Hanover (GER) 1 (Pinto 70) Anzhi Makhachkala (RUS) 1 (Traore 90+9)
Makhachkala won 4-2 on aggregate
At Lisbon
Benfica 2 (John 60, Matic 77) Bayer Leverkusen 1 (Schuerrle 75)
Benfica win 3-1 on aggregate
At Piraeus
Olympiakos (GRE) 0 Levante (ESP) 1 (Martins 9)
Levante win 4-0 on aggregate
At Plzen
Viktoria Plzen (CZE) 2 (Kovarik 51, Tecl 74) Napoli (ITA) 0
Plzen win 5-0 on aggregate
At Bordeaux
Bordeaux (FRA) 1 (Diabate 41) Dynamo Kiev (UKR) 0
Bordeaux win 2-1 on aggregate
At Istanbul
Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (Cristian 45+1) BATE Borisov (BLR) 0
Fenerbahce win 1-0 on aggregate
At Rome
Lazio (ITA) 2 (Gonzalez 10, Candreva 33) Borussia Moenchengladbach (GER) 0
Lazio win 5-3 on aggregate
At Bucharest
Steaua Bucharest (ROM) 2 (Latovlevici 38, Chiriches 76) Ajax (NED) 0
aet: Aggregate 2-2, Steaua win 4-2 on penalties
