In European football's UEFA Cup, Zenit St. Petersburg of Russia has played the French club Marseille to a 1-1 draw to reach the quarterfinals of the tournament for the first time ever.
Alexander Kerzhakov opened the scoring with a goal in the 69th minute. Five minutes later Frederic Dehu curled in a free kick to even the game. Marseille was reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Cedric Carrasso fouled Kerzhakov. The Russian club advanced on a 2-1 aggregate score after a 1-0 win in the opener last week.
Meanwhile, Levski Sofia of Bulgaria scored a 2-1 win over Udinese of Italy and advances on a 2-1 aggregate score. Igor Tomasic and Daniel Borimirov scored for the Bulgarian club while Fernando Tissone scored for Udinese.
The Swiss club Basel advanced on a 4-2 aggregate after playing the French Club Strasbourg to a 2-2 draw. Eduardo scored both goals for Basel.
FC Schalke of Germany overturned a first-leg deficit with a 3-0 win, eliminating Palermo of Sicily on a 3-1 aggregate. Steaua Bucharest of Romania beat Real Betis of Spain, 3-0, to advance by that same aggregate score.
The quarterfinal draw is Friday. The UEFA Cup final will be held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands on May 10.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.