Zenit St. Petersburg did enough on Wednesday to keep their knockout stage destiny in their own hands, but they missed a great opportunity to put away FC Porto. They missed a penalty in the second half and failed to capitalize on numerous other chances, letting their visitors off with a 1-1 draw that keeps them in a decent position.
Zenit St. Petersburg vs. FC Porto: Final score 1-1, visitors escape with their tournament lives
Both Zenit and Porto are still very much alive, but probably fighting for second place after their draw.
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It looked like Porto might be able to spring an upset early on. They had the better of the play in the opening minutes and scored the game’s first goal in the 23rd minute. Lucho Gonzalez was the scorer, nodding in a cross from right back Danilo to put Zenit under serious pressure.
Danny had to come off for Zenit due to injury in the 28th minute and Porto were caught napping after that substitution. Less than 30 seconds after Alexander Kerzhakov entered, Porto’s defense got tangled up and gifted Hulk an equalizer. The Zenit striker took advantage of a pass from Roman Shirokov that wasn’t cut out, splitting Helton and a Porto defender before passing into an empty net.
Zenit’s penalty came in the 51st minute when Nicolas Otamendi was caught handling the ball, but Hulk took a very poor spot kick, failing to place his shot in the lower corner and instead putting it in a spot that made it very easy for Helton to make a save.
The dying minutes were dominated by Zenit, with substitute Andriy Arshavin making a positive impact, but they were inaccurate with their shooting, leading to more goal kicks than difficult work for Helton.
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