August 17 – Zenit St Petersburg produced one of the greatest comebacks in European history on Thursday – but there were no fans inside the stadium to see it.
Incredibly Zenit overturned a 4-0 first-leg deficit to beat Dinamo Minsk of Belarus 8-1 for an 8-5 overall aggregate.
The match was played behind closed doors following UEFA sanctions back in June. Yet Zenit, who reached the last 16 in 2017-18, completed the biggest Europa League/UEFA Cup comeback in 33 years – and with just ten men after Leandro Paredes was sent off with 18 minutes of normal time left.
The last time a team performed such heroics in this competition, in either guise, was in 1985 when Real Madrid came back from 5-1 down against Borussia Monchengladbach.
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