APOEL 2-1 Zenit St Petersburg: Hosts fight back to stun Russians

Zenit had a decent penalty shout turned down when William Boaventura dragged down Aleksandr Anyukov but the referee resisted the urge to give the visitors a penalty. Less than a minute later APOEL should have gone ahead.

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Ailton latched onto a chipped through ball but the Brazilian striker took one touch too many allowing Vyacheslav Malafeev to spring from his line and get down to deny the Cypriots the lead.

Another good chance for the hosts followed with the ball breaking to Ivan Trickovski on the edge of the box, but the Macedonia international rushed his shot, blasting it into the side netting when he could have taken another touch.

The home side continued to push in the early part of the second half and created another good chance to take the lead. Trickovski played a quick one-two with Ailton before firing at Malafeev, who made a fantastic save.

Before too long, however, the Cypriot side found themselves behind. Danny ran freely through a short-staffed APOEL defence before sending a perfectly weighted pass to Konstantin Zyryanov, who made no mistake with a crisp finish in the 63rd minute.

The hosts then levelled matters 10 minutes later when a scuffed Helio Pinto shot fell to Jorge Manduca, who made no mistake with his emphatic finish.

Moments later the comeback was complete when Ailton finished past Malafeev with a composed right-footed strike from just inside the box.

The nightmare continued for Zenit when Bruno Alves received his marching orders for a second yellow card, following a cynical challenge on Ailton as the Brazilian forward looked to run free of the Zenit back line.

Viktor Fayzulin struck the post with seconds remaining as the 10-man Russians pushed for an equaliser but in the end the Cypriots were able to hold on for a famous victory.