Mario Balotelli was sent off as Manchester City failed to overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit against Dynamo Kiev, with a 1-0 win on the night not enough to prevent them crashing out of the Europa League.

Balotelli was issued a straight red card for a crashing 36th-minute challenge on Goran Popov, but City gave themselves hope three minutes later when Aleksandar Kolarov hit a low free-kick under Oleksandr Shovkovskiy.

The Ukrainians defended deep in the second half and restricted City to few chances, threatening to make the game safe themselves when Denis Garmash had a header cleared off the line but holding on for their last eight place.

Spartak Moscow hammered Ajax 3-0 at the Luzhniki Stadium to wrap up a 4-0 aggregate win with a free-kick from Brazilian Alex adding to first-half strikes from Dmitri Kombarov and Welliton.

Spartak, who had suffered an embarrassing 4-0 loss at Rostov in their Russian League opener on Monday night, dominated although Christian Eriksson hit the bar for Ajax and was also denied by Spartak goalkeeper Andriy Dikan.

Reigning Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg staged an heroic comeback bid at home to FC Twente, but their 2-0 win on the night was not enough and they slid to a 3-2 aggregate defeat.

Roman Shirokov and Alexander Kerzhakov gave Zenit hope with first-half strikes but Twente defended well and ought to have put the game out of Zenit's reach when Oguchi Onyewu missed a fine chance late on.

Benfica nudged through 3-2 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw with Paris St Germain in the French capital. Nicolas Gaitan opened the scoring for Benfica on 27 and Mathieu Bodmer's 35th-minute equaliser was not enough.