Vasily Berezutsky headed an 86th-minute winner to give CSKA Moscow a smash-and-grab 2-1 win at Inter Milan on Wednesday to secure the unlikeliest of qualifications for the Champions League knockout stage.
CSKA, who were bottom of Group B before the round of matches, needed to upset already qualified Inter and hope that there was no winner in the Lille-Trabzonspor game, which ended 0-0, to snatch second place.
Berezutsky rose four minutes from time to head home a close-range header from a corner.
Seydou Doumbia scored the opener on 50 minutes, springing the offside trap on give-and-go from Vagner Love and tucking the ball into the corner from 10 yards.
Esteban Cambiasso tapped in the equalizer barely two minutes later after goalkeeper Vladimir Gabulov had stopped a point-blank header from Walter Samuel.
CSKA made a positive start with top striker Doumbia, returning to European action after a one-match suspension, having two early shots blocked.
The hosts struck back, with Diego Milito springing the offside trap but unable to find Philippe Coutinho in the center for what would have been a tap-in.
Yuto Nagatomo raced clear moments later after a one-two with Coutinho, but Gabulov dived to his right to catch the Japanese wingback's low shot.
A deflection took a long-range shot by Inter captain Javier Zanetti just wide on 23 minutes.
The visitors crept back into the game, with Brazilian striker Vagner Love spinning on the edge of the box and sending a shot toward the corner that Luca Castellazzi palmed away at full stretch.
Vagner Love then missed the best chance of the half, heading an Alan Dzagoev free kick over from six yards out.
Nagamoto tested Gabulov with a vicious drive from 30 yards on 40 minutes, before Vagner Love missed a second header, from a corner.
Milito tried to dink the ball over the onrushing Gabulov on the stroke of half time, but the CSKA stopper blocked and the danger was cleared.
After the two-goal burst CSKA almost took the lead again, with Castellazza stranding firm at his near post to block a Dzagoev shot from close range.
The visitors continued to press, as Kirill Nababkin broke down the right, sent in a cross that evaded the goalkeeper but unfortunately for CSKA also the strikers.
Inter broke and fashioned another chance for Milito, who headed tamely at Gabulov from eight yards out. He repeated the feat a moment later from a free kick.
CSKA threw men forward in the final 15 minutes in search of the winner. Vagner Love turned an fired wide on 79 minutes, then Doumbia came inches away from connecting with a cross that eluded the goalkeeper.
A well-worked free kick nearly brought the priceless goal a minute later as Sergei Ignashevich chipped a free kick into the box that substitute Yevgeny Aldonin squared for Vasily Berezutsky to volley straight at Castellazza.
Milito came closest to scoring five minutes before time with a close-range header that ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar.
CSKA grabbed the winner on the next attack, with Vagner Love winning the corner that it came from.
CSKA waited nervously on the pitch after the final whistle before coach Leonid Slutsky delivered the news of the draw in France, sparking scenes of wild celebration.
Inter edged CSKA 3-2 in Moscow in September thanks to a late winner from Mauro Zarate, and previously ended CSKA's best-ever run in the Champions League with a 2-0 aggregate win in the 2010 quarterfinals.
It gives Russia two representatives in the final stages for the first time after Zenit St. Petersburg qualified with a 0-0 draw in Porto on Tuesday.
