Tekke earns Zenit 1-1 draw against BATE
Reuters - Tuesday 21 October 2008, 19:53
ST PETERSBURG - Fatih Tekke struck late to salvage a 1-1 draw for Zenit St Petersburg against fellow Champions League debutants BATE Borisov in a lively Group H match on Tuesday.
The Belarusian champions opened the scoring against the run of play seven minutes after the restart when substitute Pavel Nekhaychik fired a low shot past keeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev after a nice through-ball by Gennadi Bliznyuk.
Zenit dominated for most of the match and were unlucky to find a way through a packed BATE defence until Tekke beat the offside trap and fired an equaliser with 10 minutes remaining to give the UEFA Cup holders their first point.
Surprise package BATE earned their second point in three games after holding Juventus to a 2-2 draw in their last encounter three weeks ago.
Real Madrid, who lead the group on six points from two games, were facing Juventus in Turin later on Tuesday.
Zenit put the visitors under pressure right from the start.
Portugal international Danny tested BATE keeper Sergei Veremko with a long-range effort in the seventh minute.
Just three minutes later Veremko did well to clear the ball off the goal line after a Konstantin Zyryanov header.
Tekke then hit the post with a glancing header after a pin-point cross from Russia playmaker Andrei Arshavin.
MISSED CHANCES
Danny, Zenit's record 30 million euro signing from Dynamo Moscow this summer, also hit the crossbar with a rising shot after a clever back pass by Arshavin just before the half-hour mark.
BATE's rare counter-attacks also posed danger, Vitali Rodionov wasting the best chance for the visitors in the first half when he hit the post in the 20th minute after a blunder by Zenit defender Ivica Krizanac.
Arshavin, the most active for the home team, worked tirelessly creating a number of chances in the second half for Tekke and substitute Pavel Pogrebnyak, whose point-blank header was stopped by Veremko.
The Russian champions kept pushing forward, however, until Tekke finally gave the home crowd something to cheer.
Zenit coach Dick Advocaat was left to rue missed chances.
"I can only repeat what I've been saying after matches against Real and Juventus. We controlled the game and created numerous opportunities," the Dutchman told a news conference.
"We could have scored a lot more than one goal tonight but once again kept wasting our chances and if you don't score, your opponent will do it for you. That's an old rule of football."
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