Zenit forward Hulk feels the Russian side restored some pride with their 2-1 win against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, but admits the damage was already done after a 4-2 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League second round tie.
The Brazilian netted a wonderful goal to open the scoring in Germany, before forward Salomón Rondón struck with 17 minutes remaining to cancel out Sebastian Kehl’s equaliser.
After the game, Hulk praised the performance of his team-mates, but was left ruing Zenit’s first leg collapse.
“Obviously we’re very disappointed to go out of the Champions League, but it was too big a mountain to climb tonight,” he told UEFA.com. “After such a poor first-leg showing it was always going to be tough to win against one of the best teams in Europe. We managed to do so tonight, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it into the quarter-finals.
“After I scored I thought something might be possible, but we didn’t follow it up with a second and instead conceded the equaliser. That was obviously a blow. Now we’re out and we have to accept that that’s because of our poor first-leg performance.”
