Fellow English team Liverpool almost staged a memorable comeback to beat Zenit St Petersburg .
Last season it was Shakhtar who won, before that it was Zenit St Petersburg, and Sevilla also won the competition.
Fellow English club Liverpool didn't fare so well, suffering their second successive 2-0 defeat after being beaten by Zenit St Petersburg in Russia.
Spanish side Sevilla beat Mainz, Russian team FC Zenit St Petersburg saw off AEK Athens and Portuguese outfit Vitoria won a tight tie against Wisla Krakow.
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Pogrebnyak was not lacking in fitness having joined from Russian outfit Zenit St Petersburg, who are midway through their season, and he looked lively early on.
"I think the club's dream coach would be Luciano Spalletti, but he is at Zenit St Petersburg on a huge contract so that's not going to happen, " said Marcotti.
Shortly before Euro 2008, Zenit St Petersburg clinched the Uefa Cup, three years after CSKA Moscow had claimed the country's first European club trophy with victory in the same competition.
Rijkaard also used Verheijen when he coached Barcelona, as did Hiddink when he managed Chelsea, while Advocaat used the 39-year-old fitness expert when he was in charge of Zenit St Petersburg.
He has got people like Pavel Pogrebnyak and Andrei Arshavin, who both showed with Uefa Cup-winning side Zenit St Petersburg that they are quality players who can play to a very high level.
"Throughout the world, people will laugh at this decision in disbelief and none more so than in Russia as their own association has done everything it can to assist FC Zenit St Petersburg, " he said.
There were also questions about expense claims from officials who had organised a meeting with Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive on the day of the Uefa Cup final in 2008 between Rangers and Zenit St Petersburg.
The problems in Manchester came after more than 100, 000 Glasgow Rangers fans were in the city centre on Wednesday night to watch the Uefa Cup final with Zenit St Petersburg, held at Manchester City's stadium at Eastlands.
Rangers legend Colin Stein scored the first goal in the Ibrox side's 3-2 win over Dynamo Moscow in Barcelona 36 years ago and he has drawn parallels with the current Rangers team who take on Zenit St Petersburg in Manchester.
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