Zenit St Petersburg squeezed through to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals on the away-goals rule as Pavel Pogrebnyak's brace gave them a 2-0 win in the second leg of their last-16 tie against Marseille.

Pogrebnyak drove home neat finishes in either half - his second coming in the 78th minute - to sink OM, who were left to rue Andrei Arshavin's late away goal in the first leg last week.

The visitors had their chances to score an away goal themselves in St Petersburg but their finishing let them down.

On a bumpy pitch in freezing conditions, it was OM who started the better and had early chances through Taye Taiwo and Mathieu Valbuena.

Taiwo should have done better when he headed wide a free-kick from Valbuena, who then shot straight at Zenit goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev after exchanging a one-two with Samir Nasri.

The rest of the half belonged to the hosts, who stepped up a gear and pinned OM back in their own half.

Konstantin Zyrianov had a couple of chances in as many minutes, the first coming just before the half-hour mark when he blazed over with the goal gaping after a pull-back by Anatoliy Tymoschuk.

The midfielder then leapt highest to meet a left-wing cross from Radek Sirl, but his header bounced just wide of the post.

Zenit's goal was deserved when it came, Pogrebnyak running onto an Arshavin through-ball and placing a low shot past OM goalkeeper Steve Mandanda from 15 yards.

Djibril Cisse could have levelled the score just before half-time but he shot straight at Malafeev after he latched onto Valbuena's pass.

It was nip and tuck at the start of the second half but OM were beginning to look more assured at the back.

And they were still threatening at the other end, Mamadou Niang sending a long-range effort just wide of the post in the 71st minute.

But they were hit with the sucker punch with 12 minutes to go when substitute Fatih Tekke clipped a pass to Pogrebnyak, who escaped the challenge of Gael Givet and rifled home a finish from 10 yards.

News source: Soccernet.espn.go.com
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