Kiev end Everton’s bid to restore English pride

PARIS: Dynamo Kiev shattered Everton’s hopes of restoring English pride with a ruthless 5-2 demolition of the Premier League side in the Europa League last 16 on Thursday.
Italy came off slightly better, with Napoli and Fiorentina both going through, but AS Roma, Torino and Inter Milan all fell by the wayside.
Club Brugge of Belgium had a comfortable passage into the last eight, winning 3-1 away at Turkish side Besiktas thanks to a late double from Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo for a 5-2 aggregate win and Sevilla completed another 5-2 aggregate triumph over Villareal in the round’s all-Spanish tie.
Ajax, though, found themselves victims of the away goals rule as they went out to Dnipro of Ukraine after extra time, having levelled the tie at 1-1 after 90 minutes and winning 2-1 on the night.
After Arsenal and Manchester City were eliminated from the Champions League this week, Everton went into the second leg in Kiev as the only English club still flying the flag in Europe this season.
But Roberto Martinez’s team fared no better than their domestic rivals as they were swept away by a first-half goal spree from Kiev, who eventually ran out 6-4 aggregate winners.
“A couple of times we made some defensive mistakes but there was also some incredible finishing from the opposition,” Martinez said.
“I agree there were instances when we could have defended better but there is not a lot you can do about goals that go right into the top corner.
“It was the kind of night where everything they tried went into the back of the net.”
Napoli and Fiorentina weathered the away legs of their ties to reach the last eight, Napoli drawing 0-0 at Dinamo Moscow and Fiorentina stunning Italian rivals AS Roma 3-0 to go through 4-1 on aggregate.
But Torino could not overturn a 2-0 deficit against Zenit St Petersburg, despite Kamil Gilk’s last-minute winner on the night and Zenit having no fewer than seve men booked.
Inter slumped to a humiliating 2-1 home defeat to Wolfsburg, for whom Nicklas Bendtner rounded off a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Trailing 2-1 from last week’s first leg, Dynamo Kiev took the lead through Andriy Yarmolenko and, although Romelu Lukaku equalised for Everton, it was Sergei Rebrov’s side who were the dominant force.
Lukasz Teodorczyk and Miguel Veloso struck before half-time and Oleg Gusev and Vitorino Antunes netted in the second half to bring a suitably downbeat conclusion to a woeful season for Premier League teams in Europe.
In Moscow, Napoli brought a 3-1 lead from the first leg thanks to Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain’s slick hat-trick, and always looked comfortable.
After a 1-1 draw with Roma in Florence a week ago, Fiorentina stormed into a 3-0 lead at the Stadio Olimpico to put a comeback virtually beyond Roma.
All three goals were bagged by defenders as Gonzalo Rodriguez opened the account with a coolly-struck penalty after nine minutes, Marcos Alonso added a second and Jose Maria Basanta’s header made it 3-0 on 22 minutes.
Roma boss Rudi Garcia said: “I take my hat off to Fiorentina, who made the most of the chances we gifted them.”