5-star Kiev end Everton's bid to restore English pride

Dynamo Kiev shattered Everton's hopes of restoring English pride with a ruthless 5-2 demolition of the Premier League side in the Europa League last 16 on Thursday.
After Arsenal and Manchester City were eliminated from the Champions League this week, Everton went into the second leg in Kiev as the only English club still flying the flag in Europe this season.
But Roberto Martinez's team fared no better than their domestic rivals as they were swept away by a first-half goal spree from Kiev, who eventually ran out 6-4 aggregate winners.
Elsewhere, Italian sides Napoli and Fiorentina weathered the away legs of their ties to reach the last eight, Napoli drawing 0-0 at Dymamo Moscow and Fiorentina stunning Italian rivals AS Roma 3-0 to go through 4-1 on aggregate.
Trailing 2-1 from last week's first leg, Dynamo Kiev took the lead through Andriy Yarmolenko and, although Romelu Lukaku equalised for Everton, it was Sergei Rebrov's side who were the dominant force.
Lukasz Teodorczyk and Miguel Veloso struck before half-time and Oleg Gusev and Vitorino Antunes netted in the second half to bring a suitably downbeat conclusion to a woeful season for Premier League teams in Europe.
Martinez had been concerned about the state of the Olympic Stadium pitch and opted not to train his players on the surface on the eve of the tie.
But it was Everton's dismal defending, rather than any issues with the turf, that ended their bid to reach a first European quarter-final since 1985.
The Ukrainian league leaders were on top from the start and their opening goal arrived in spectacular fashion in the 21st minute.
- Sublime finish -
Yarmolenko left Gareth Barry bewildered by a pair of deft step-overs that bought him just enough space 25 yards from goal to curl a superb shot into the far corner as Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard stood rooted to the spot.
Everton were struggling to get foothold in the game, but they equalised in the 29th minute thanks to a moment of magic from their European talisman.
Lukaku's penalty against Dynamo last week made him Everton's all-time record goalscorer in European competition with seven goals in eight appearances.
And the Belgian striker was back on the scoresheet as he whipped a sublime finish past Kiev goalkeeper Oleksandr Shovkovsky from 20 yards.
However, Lukaku's heroics proved a false dawn for the visitors, with parity restored for only six minutes.
This time it was Teodorczyk's turn to take advantage of more sloppy Everton defending with a clinical close-range finish after Antolin Alcaraz and Phil Jagielka failed to deal with Gusev's long ball into the penalty area.
Everton's night got even worse two minutes later and again they were the authors of their own downfall.
A routine cross from Danilo Silva induced panic in the Everton defence and Jagielka headed weakly towards Portugal midfielder Miguel Veloso, who rifled in a left-footed shot that deflected past Howard.
Even the half-time break couldn't stem the bleeding for Martinez's shell-shocked troops and Gusev effectively ended the tie when he drilled home off a post after Everton failed to deal with another incisive Kiev raid in the 56th minute.
There was still time for Kiev to inflict one more blow in the 76th minute as Antunes smashed an unstoppable long-range drive past Howard.
Martinez's team got one back through Jagielka's 82nd minute header, but it was far too late to spark a dramatic escape.
In Moscow, Stanislav Cherchesov's Dynamo struggled to break down Napoli and had a poor night in front of goal despite dominating possession.
Napoli brought a 3-1 lead from the first leg thanks to Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain's slick hat-trick, and Rafael Benitez side were always comfortable.
After a 1-1 draw with Roma in Florence a week ago, Fiorentina stormed into a 3-0 lead at the Stadio Olimpico to put a comeback virtually beyond Roma.
All three goals were bagged by defenders as Gonzalo Rodriguez opened the account with a coolly-struck penalty after nine minutes, Marcos Alonso added a second and Jose Maria Basanta's header made it 3-0 on 22 minutes.
Source: AFP