Aymen Abdennour and Fabinho’s second-half goals helped AS Monaco beat Zenit St Petersburg 2-0 at home and send the principality side into the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
Centerback Abdennour headed home in the 64th minute before Fabinho doubled the tally with a low shot one minute from time as the Ligue 1 side clinched top spot in Group C with 11 points from six games, although they only managed a miserly four goals overall.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who were held to a goalless draw at SL Benfica, finished one point behind.
Photo: AFP
Zenit will drop into the UEFA Europa League round of 32.
Monaco, who had only conceded one goal from their opening five games, started cautiously in St Petersburg on Tuesday. Zenit had the first decent chance when Hulk’s powerful free-kick was parried away by Danijel Subasic in the 27th minute.
Shortly afterward, Jeremy Toulalan slalomed though the Zenit defense, but his low shot went wide.
Zenit largely dominated possession, but the hosts were barely threatened and comfortably reached the interval unscathed.
Dimitar Berbatov came close for Monaco 10 minutes into the second half, but the former Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United striker went off injured a minute later.
Monaco were breathing easier just past the hour when Ferreira Carrasco’s perfectly bent free-kick was met by Tunisian Abdennour with a header to score with Monaco’s first attempt on target.
Zenit tried to respond, but the home side, who lost James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao to Real Madrid and Manchester United respectively last summer, held on.
Les Rouge et Blanc even scored another goal in the 89th minute when Fabinho fired in a low shot.
At the Estadio da Luz, Leverkusen showed none of their usual German efficiency as they were held to a scoreless draw against already-eliminated Benfica to miss out on top spot in Group C.
The result meant that Monaco leap-frogged the Bundesliga side into top spot. The French side finished with 11 points, Leverkusen on 10, Zenit on 7 and Benfica with 4.
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