Zenit St Petersburg have qualified for the Europa League with a 1-0 victory over AC Milan at San Siro in their Champions League Group C clash.
Anderlecht's 2-2 draw with Malaga in Spain in the other game in the group means that Zenit finish third in Group C.
© AP Photos
Milan were denied a penalty just four minutes into the match when Giampaolo Pazzini was pulled down by Bruno Alves, but the referee waved play on.
Minutes later Sergei Semak shot high from distance, before Cristian Zapata made an important challenge on Hulk inside the Milan penalty box.
Both sides created chances thereafter, but it was the Russian club that took the lead in the 35th minute.
Danny burst into the Rossoneri penalty and after getting lucky with his pull-back, he drove low into far bottom corner of the net.
Bojan Krkic tried an audacious overhead kick to equalise for Milan but failed to keep his attempt on target, before Mathieu Flamini tested Vyacheslav Malafeev with a fierce strike.
Pazzini almost made it 1-1 on the stroke of half time, but failed to place his glancing header into the Zenit goal.
Kevin-Prince Boateng could have equalised for Milan in the early minutes of the second half, but was denied by Malafeev, and then Aleksandr Anyukov cleared Urby Emanuelson's attempt just in time.
Milan continued to dominate proceedings at San Siro, with Boateng, Robinho, Bojan and Francesco Acerbi all having chances.
Robinho's curling effort in the final minutes went just wide of the far post and in injury time Christian Abbiati made a last-ditch save to keep the scoreline at 1-0.
Subhankar Mondal
