Tim Howard and Everton scored a fortunate win over Zenit St. Petersburg to clinch advancement, while Ramiro Corrales and Brann were left waiting by a loss at Basel.

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LUCKY TOFFEES PIP 10-MAN ZENIT
Tim Cahill scrambled home a late goal as Everton clinched their place in the UEFA Cup knockout stage with a 1-0 win over visiting Zenit St. Petersburg.

Tim Howard shook off the effects of illness to go the distance in goal as the Goodison crew made sure of finishing top in Group A.

Everton applied heavy pressure from kickoff, and after only two minutes, Mikel Arteta had an effort plucked form the line by Kim Dong-Jin.

Just as Zenit were coming into the match, they were hit with a double blow of bad luck in the 28th minute. Cahill was able to round stranded keeper Vyacheslav Malafeev, but Nicolas Lombaerts did very well to block the Socceroo's sharp angle shot with his chest.

Kristinn Jakobsson, however, blew for a handball penalty and made the horrendous decision to send the Belgian off - partial justice was served when Arteta put the spot kick over.

With 10 minutes left in the period, Arteta nearly deposited a curling free kick, only to have Malafeev paw the shot away. Shortly thereafter, a Lee Carsley effort rang the post.

Zenit came out of the break with renewed verve and came close when Pavel Pogrebnyak forced a top shelf save from Howard in the 49th minute. Moments later, Konstantin Zyryanov missed the frame on a golden chance from close range.

In the 53rd minute, Andy Johnson nudged his header from a Leighton Baines cross inches wide, but the home side would finally have cause to celebrate in the late going.

A corner kick header by Joleon Lescott was blocked back to him for a stinging volley that Malafeev would somehow stop. Unfortunately for the visitors, the rebound fell to a wide open Cahill, who slid around the keeper to net with five minutes to play.

Scoring
EVE - Tim Cahill 1 85'

Line-ups
EVE - Tim Howard; Phil Neville, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott, Leighton Baines, Steven Pienaar, Tim Cahill, Lee Carsley, Mikel Arteta, Andy Johnson (James Vaughan 81'), James McFadden (Victor Anichebe 64')

ZSP - Vyacheslav Malafeev; Aleksandr Anyukov (Lee Ho 78'), Martin Škrtel, Nicolas Lombaerts, Kim Dong-Jin, Anatoliy Tymoschuk, Konstantin Zyryanov, Radek Šírl, Andrei Arshavin, Alejandro Domínguez (Olexander Gorshkov 45'), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Erik Hagen 61')

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CARLITOS BOOT DOWNS BRANN
Norwegian champs Brann will need to sit on the sideline and wait until the final group stage matches are played to see if they will advance to the UEFA Cup knockouts after a close shave 1-0 defeat at Basel.

Ramiro Corrales worked the first half, picking up the foul that set up the home side's 40th winner by Carlitos.

The teams traded fourth minute long range chances as Håkon Opdal turned away Carlitos before Man of the Match Franco Costanzo made a save on Petter Vaagan Moen.

Corrales missed the mark with a 12th minute free kick, but it was his own third foul of the opening stanza that cost his team dearly. The American took down Carlitos, who responded by lashing the resulting restart into the upper 90.

Opdal did well to hold the deficit at one by making a big stop on Reto Zanni on the edge of halftime.

Costanzo was the hero of the second half, highlighted by a stunning 90th minute save on Erik Huseklepp.

The Pride of Bergen can still advance from Group D, but with their four-game slate complete, fate rests on the December 20th match between Rennes and Dinamo Zagreb. The French hosts will require a three-goal victory to finish third ahead of Brann, while the Croatian champs need to win by two and score at least three goals.

Scoring
FCB - Carlitos 1 40'

Line-ups
FCB - Franco Costanzo; Kōji Nakata, Daniel Majstorović, François Marque, Reto Zanni, Benjamin Huggel, Felipe Caicedo (David Degen 68'), Ivan Ergić, Eduardo, Carlitos, Eren Derdiyok

SKB - Håkon Opdal; Bjørn Dahl, Cato Guntveit (Joakim Sjöhage 50'), Ramiro Corrales (Ármann Björnsson 46'), Azar Karadas, Jan Gunnar Solli, Petter Vaagan Moen, Erik Huseklepp, Erlend Hanstveit, Ólafur Örn Bjarnason, Thorstein Helstad