Everton, Fulham into Europa League group stages

English Premier League sides Everton and Fulham survived testing trips to reach the Europa League group stages on Thursday, but 2008 UEFA Cup champions Zenit St Petersburg stumbled to defeat.

Everton drew 1-1 with Sigma Olomouc in the Czech Republic for a 5-1 aggregate win, but they had to play over 80 minutes of the game with 10 men after defender Tony Hibbert was sent off for a professional foul.

The Merseysiders, 4-0 ahead from the first leg, went in front through South African international Steven Pienaar just before half-time with Pavel Sultes’ 80th-minute goal for a mere consolation for the Czechs.

“It was a job well done,” said Everton boss David Moyes, whose side currently sit bottom of the Premier League.

“I am pleased we got through, it was important for us. I thought we got better as the game went on. They put us under pressure but thankfully we defended well enough and got a goal ourselves.”

Roy Hodgson’s Fulham made the exhausting trip to eastern Russia where they went down 1-0 to Amkar Perm for whom Martin Kushev scored in the last minute, but the Londoners still secured a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Zenit, who sacked Dick Advocaat as coach recently, were knocked out by Portuguese side Nacional.

The Russians had trailed 4-3 from the first leg but looked to be on course for the next stage when Fatih Tekke gave them a 34th-minute lead to level the tie on aggregate, but with a key advantage in terms of away goals.

However, with just a minute left to play, Ruben Micael scored to put the Portuguese side through.

Russia’s woes continued when Dinamo Moscow lost 2-1 at home to CSKA Sofia having held the Bulgarians to a 0-0 draw in the first leg.

Former England manager Steve McClaren saw his Twente side draw 0-0 at Qarabag in Baku for a 3-1 aggregate win while fellow Dutch contenders Ajax won 2-1 at Slovan Bratislava for a 7-1 aggregate victory.