Zenit St Petersburg moved to the brink of a place in the UEFA Cup semi-finals after the Russian champions routed Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 at the BayArena.

Zenit, who have already knocked out Villarreal and Marseille this season, moved ahead with a 19th-minute goal from Andre Arshavin that gave Leverkusen a taste of things to come in their quarter-final first leg.

Stefan Kiessling grabbed an equaliser for Leverkusen, the 1988 UEFA Cup winners, when he struck on the rebound later in the first half but the Germans lost the plot entirely after the break.

Pavel Pogrebnyak made it 2-1 in the 52nd minute and two goals in the space of three minutes from Aleksandr Anyukov and Igor Denisov helped Zenit to a memorable win.

The second leg takes place in St Petersburg on April 10.

Anyukov and Pogrebnyak both missed good chances before Arshavin put Zenit ahead with a wonderful goal, cutting in from the right and blasting into the roof of the net from a tight angle.

Leverkusen were generally short of inspiration in attack but they grabbed a slightly fortunate equaliser when Bernd Schneider's weak header was cleared straight to Kiessling for a simple finish.

If Zenit had been occasionally generous in the first half they were utterly ruthless after the break, as they picked the Leverkusen defence apart.

Arshavin burst clear down the left and crossed for Pogrebnyak to make it 2-1 in the 52nd minute.

Anyukov beat Rene Adler with a weak shot from the edge of the box in the 61st minute and it was 4-1 almost immediately as Denisov finished off another lightning break instigated by Victor Fayzulin.

Reuters