CSKA Moscow battled their way into the quarter-fiinals of the Champions League for the first time on Tuesday, with a 2-1 win away to sluggish Sevilla, dpa reported.
CSKA won thanks to goals from young strikers Tomas Necid and Keisuke Honda, the second with the help of an uncharacteristic blunder from veteran Sevilla keeper Andres Palop.
In between, Diego Perotti had levelled for Sevilla, who looked rather overawed by the big occasion.
The Russians go through to the quarters on a 3-2 aggregate because the first leg in Moscow three weeks ago was a 1-1 draw.
"This is a wonderful achievement by us," said CSKA's Chilean midfielder Mark Gonzalez.
"To come here and win was always going to be difficult," he added, "but we managed to do it thanks to our strong team-work."
"We have fought hard," said Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo, "but they defended very well."
Negredo added that "their second goal really killed us off, it was practically impossible after that."
Sevilla president Jose Maria del Nido, for his part, said that "they have not played better than us over the two legs but they have managed to score one goal more than us, and in football the goal is the king."
He added that "we were unlucky in certain moments, due to the tension... At the end we were too accelerated."
It was a dour battle between two former UEFA Cup winners anxious to reach the Champions quarter-finals for the first time - and CSKA proved to be the more cunning and practical side, against opponents who looked nervous and often naive.
The Russians always seemed dangerous on the break and it was little surprise when they took the lead in the 39th minute. Honda played a clever short ball to Necid and the Czech striker scored with a precise low drive from the edge of the penalty area.
Perotti made it 1-1 just two minutes later with an opportune toe-poke, after the CSKA defence had made a mess of a long ball from Palop and had allowed Jesus Navas to get in a free centre.
But it was the only time that the Moscovite defence looked shaky all night.
CSKA came out after half-time determined to score a killer second goal, and they did so in the 55th minute.
Honda sent over a speculative left-foot free-kick from distance that should not really have troubled Palop but the old-timer was caught in two minds as to whether to punch the ball or catch it - and succeeded only in pushing it into his own goal.
Sevilla huffed and puffed from then on, but never looked capable of scoring the two goals that they needed to turn the match around.