Gonzalez stunner denies Sevilla

Posted Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by PA

Mark Gonzalez struck a magnificent equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw for CSKA Moscow in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Sevilla.

Gonzalez, who joined CSKA last summer from Sevilla's local rivals Real Betis, smashed home an unstoppable 35-yard drive in the 66th minute to cancel out Alvaro Negredo's first-half opener for the Primera Division outfit.

The draw was a fair result in freezing conditions in Russia, where CSKA enjoyed the majority of the few chances that either side created, but were rarely able to test visiting goalkeeper Andres Palop.

After a relatively quiet opening, Sevilla took the lead in the 25th minute through Negredo.

The Real Madrid youth product has not had the best of times recently, scoring an own goal and being sent off in the 2-1 defeat to Real Zaragoza a fortnight ago and then picking up another red card in Saturday's 3-1 win over Real Mallorca.

However, the Spain international enjoyed a happier time of it on Wednesday night as he slotted home his first Champions League goal.

Adriano fed the ball out to Jesus Navas on the right, and the quicksilver winger went outside his marker before firing in a perfect low cross that bisected the two CSKA centre-backs and their goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev and allowed Negredo a simple tap-in at the far post.

That was Sevilla's only real chance of the first half, but the Spanish side had few scares at the other end even though CSKA created plenty of attacking platforms.

Japan international Keisuke Honda was looking CSKA's biggest threat and he fired two efforts not far wide from the edge of the box.

Gonzalez sent a spectacular volley wide and Tomas Necid also tried his luck, but Palop was rarely called into action in the opening 45 minutes.

It was a similar story at the start of the second half with CSKA again failing to hit the target, although Honda's deflected header from Milos Krasic's dinked cross only just dropped wide of the far post.

Sevilla did better with their opportunity in the 63rd minute as they at least tested Akinfeev after winning a free-kick in a dangerous position 25 yards out.

Navas rolled the ball behind him to Negredo and his low shot was saved by Akinfeev, albeit somewhat unconvincingly.

Palop had still not had much to do in the game when he was beaten by Gonzalez's stunning strike just after the hour-mark.

Gonzalez has never been a prolific scorer during his career and the Chile international cannot have scored many better goals than this as his long-range effort flew into the far side of the net with Palop barely moving a muscle.

That bolt from the blue was just the boost CSKA would have been hoping for as they were struggling to break down a well-marshalled Sevilla defence.

Leonid Slutsky's men then almost grabbed a late winner to take to the second leg to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan after Tomas Necid fashioned himself a great opening.

Necid cut inside Federico Fazio and was left with only Palop to beat. However, he was unable to beat the veteran custodian, who stuck out his right foot to deflect Necid's low shot behind for a corner and earn his side the draw.