Kamil Glik gave Torino a late 1-0 victory over Zenit, but it wasn’t enough to keep their Europa League adventure alive.
The Granata had to make up for a 2-0 first leg defeat if they were to reach the Europa League quarter-finals, a tournament they had started from the third preliminary round. Javi Garcia and Marco Benassi were suspended with Giuseppe Vives, Aleksandr Anyukov, Andrey Arshavin, Viktor Fayzulin and Aleksandr Kerzhakov injured.
Kamil Glik gave Torino a late 1-0 victory over Zenit, but it wasn’t enough to keep their Europa League adventure alive.
The Granata had to make up for a 2-0 first leg defeat if they were to reach the Europa League quarter-finals, a tournament they had started from the third preliminary round. Javi Garcia and Marco Benassi were suspended with Giuseppe Vives, Aleksandr Anyukov, Andrey Arshavin, Viktor Fayzulin and Aleksandr Kerzhakov injured.
Alexander Farnerud’s free kick skimmed the upright and moments later Fabio Quagliarella flicked on a clearance for Maxi Lopez, who just failed to get the final touch.
Torino were awarded a free kick right on the edge of the box for an Anatoliy Tymoshchuk handling offence, though the Granata thought it was inside the area.
From that free kick, Quagliarella’s strike was deflected inches wide and on the resulting corner both Kamil Glik and Emiliano Moretti had attempts charged down.
Quagliarella went close again, a header at the back post smothered by Yuri Lodygin. Toro had the ball in the net on 49 minutes with Kamil Glik, but his header was disallowed for an offside position.
Quagliarella had penalty appeals for a Tymoshchuk challenge and was booked along with Danny for their argument after that incident.
Axel Witsel hit a screamer from distance that whistled wide, then did well to get in the way of a Cesare Bovo strike. Ezequiel Garay also charged down an attempt from Josef Martinez.
On 78 minutes Toro had a great double chance, but Lodygin parried both the Martinez header and Alessandro Gazzi’s follow-up from close range.
The hosts finally did get back into it at the death. Lodygin flew to palm an Amauri header away and from the resulting corner Kamil Glik nodded in.
This sparked a chaotic six minutes of stoppages that saw Lodygin under siege and when he was beaten by a Quagliarella effort redirected off Maxi Lopez, Nicolas Lombaerts was there to perform a goalline clearance.
Zenit dropped down into the Europa League from the Champions League and progress to the quarter-finals.
Torino 1-0 Zenit (1-2 agg)
Scorers: Glik 90 (T)
Torino: Padelli; Maksimovic, Glik, Moretti; Darmian, Farnerud (Bovo 64), Gazzi, El Kaddouri (Martinez 76), Molinaro (Amauri 82); Quagliarella, Maxi Lopez
Zenit: Lodygin; Smolnikov, Luis Neto, Garay, Criscito; Tymoshchuk, Witsel; Hulk, Danny (Lombaerts 87), Shatov (Ryantsev 81); Rondon
Ref: Jug (SVN)