Zenit St Petersburg have advanced to the quarter-finals of the Europa League despite a 1-0 defeat away at Torino in their last-16 second leg this evening.
The first chance of the game at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino fell to the visitors when Hulk's long-range free kick in the second minute sailed past the right-hand post.
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Torino countered through Cristian Molinaro, who dashed through the centre of the Zenit defence before lifting a volleyed shot over the head of goalkeeper Yuri Lodygin, but the assistant referee raised his flag for offside.
Both sides continued to push forward in a game of end-to-end action as Igor Smolnikov fired wide from around 40 yards and Alexander Farnerud hit back with a close shave from a free kick.
Neither could open the scoring come the break, however, with Zenit edging ever closer to the quarter-finals unless Torino were able to overturn the 2-0 first-leg deficit in the second half.
Kamil Glik managed to get the ball into the visitors' net after the restart, smashing a diving header home after pouncing on to Farnerud's chipped cross, but the offside flag went up to disallow the goal.
Just as it seemed like Andre Villas Boas's charges were cruising to the next round, Glik broke the deadlock for the hosts after heading a corner past the Zenit keeper.
It meant a nervy last few minutes for the Russian giants, but they were able to see the rest of the game out and advance to the last eight of the competition thanks to a 2-1 aggregate win.
Giuseppe Labellarte
