Russian Football Team Returns Home Victorious

TALAI: Fans swarmed the streets of St. Petersburg on Thursday after Russian Football team Zenit won the UEFA Cup final and returned back home. Tens of thousands of fans gave no rest to those for whom football is unimportant, honking horns and launching fireworks after the team's 2-0 victory over Rangers of Scotland on Wednesday night. Igor Denisov slotted home after 72 minutes and fellow midfielder Konstantin Zyrianov sealed victory with a close range effort in stoppage time at the City of Manchester stadium to secure the trophy for Zenit in their first European final. [Anatoly Tymoschuk, Team Captain]: "I think this is an achievement of each of our players, the city and the fans, we deserved this trophy cup and brought it into our city." St Petersburg is Russia's former imperial capital and still seen by many as the country's cultural heart. And in F1 Racing, Britain's Lewis Hamilton spoke on Thursday of his ambition to join an illustrious list of Formula One drivers to win the Monaco Grand Prix. [Lewis Hamilton, F1 Racer]: "Monaco's the grand prix that every racing driver wants to win, especially me. For me the Monaco Grand Prix is the most exciting race of the year and it's the race of the year to win. Fortunately I've had good runnings there - I came second there last year. But for sure this year I want to make that one step up. It's just a dream for any kid to be sitting on the grid in Formula One in the dream team, sitting on pole position and win the grand prix like people like Ayrton Senna have done in the past, like Michael Schumacher has done in the past. It'd be a real pleasure to do it." Hamilton is joint second in the drivers' world championship after finishing runner-up in Istanbul at the weekend. Team Principal Ron Dennis acknowledged that McLaren's strategy in the race had been affected by concerns over the Bridgestone tires on Hamilton's car.

YouTube | May 17, 2008

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