The playoff round of the Champions League kicked off today with five matches that included an upset and a couple eyebrow raising results.
UEFA Champions League 2013: Zenit St. Petersburg and Viktoria Plzen halfway into the group stages
Zenit St. Petersburg and NK Maribor both earned first leg victories that have them 90 minutes away from a spot in this season’s Champions League group stage.
Just a quick reminder, these are all the first match of a two-leg tie. Here’s a recap of all the action.
Paços de Ferreira 1-4 Zenit St Petersburg
Zenit are in the driver’s seat to move on to the group stages after a 4-1 first leg victory away to Paços de Ferreira. Roman Shirokov was the hero for Zenit netting a hat trick on the day and twice giving his team the lead -- first in the 27th minute and again in he 60th minute -- including the match winner two minutes after Augusto Andre Leao had scored to pulled the home side even.
An 84th minute own-goal by Matias Degra and Shirokov’s third goal in the 90th minute iced the result, and probably the tie, for the Russian side. Zenit will return home for the second leg next week needing only to win or draw to advance.
Viktoria Plzen 3-1 NK Maribor
Goals from Marian Cisovsky, Vladimir Darida and Michal Duris led Viktoria Plezn to a first leg home victory over NK Maribor. The visitors were able to get one away goal thanks to a 66th minute by Ales Mejac, but they face the difficult task of needing to score at least two goals in the second leg to have any chance of advancing.
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