baturina breaks zenit hearts published: thursday 3 october 2002, 21.07cet fc zenit st. petersburg 2-1 grasshopper-club (agg: 3-4) a last-minute goal from stunned the russian hosts.
fc zenit st. petersburg 2-1 grasshopper-club (grasshoppers win 4-3 on aggregate) grasshopper-club won through to the uefa cup second round in dramatic circumstances after a last-minute goal from mate baturina stunned the home crowd in st. petersburg.
kerzhakov double the match started brightly for the hosts, who raced into a two-goal lead. alexander kerzhakov's double looked to be enough to give the russian club a deserved victory, only for baturina's late intervention.
early strike on seven minutes, kerzhakov latched on to a dzhambulat bazaev pass and sent a quick-fire shot off the post and into the goal. the early strike was just the lift zenit needed in front of a noisy capacity crowd at the petrovsky stadium, despite the first snow of the season in the city.
borer helpless nine minutes later it was 2-0, meaning zenit were now level on aggregate but leading in the tie by virtue of their away goal in the 3-1 first-leg defeat. andrei arshavin found kerzhakov, who sent a volley into the top corner beyond the helpless fabrice borer. minutes later, roland schwegler nearly pulled one back but his powerful shot was saved by vyacheslav malafeev.
cabanas impressive richard nuñez then shot centimetres wide for grasshoppers, while mladen petric also had a chance close to the end of first half. the swiss side kept up the pressure early in the second half, and the impressive ricardo cabanas beat several zenit defenders only to find malafeev up to the task yet again
kept his nerve zenit, for their part, seemed content to sit on what they had, although from one counterattack, olexander spivak spurned a clear chance to make it three. they were made to pay right at the death when, with one minute left, baturina, fed by andreas gerber, kept his nerve to score.
