ZENIT ST PETERSBURG 2-4 BORUSSIA DORTMUND ; Lewandowski fire BVB past Russian test

ZENIT ST PETERSBURG 2-4 BORUSSIA DORTMUND ; Lewandowski fire BVB past Russian test

Robert Lewandowski scored twice as Borussia Dortmund took a big step towards the Champions League quarter-finals with a commanding victory at Zenit St Petersburg on Tuesday.

Dortmund, losing finalists to Bayern Munich at Wembley last year, made a blistering start with Henrikh Mkhitaryan scoring in the fourth minute and Marco Reus doubling the lead a minute later.

Zenit, who had not played a competitive game since 11 December due to the Russian winter break, looked suitably rusty, but they pulled one back through Oleg Shatov in the 57th minute.

Lewandowski replied four minutes later after playing a pleasing one-two with his Poland team-mate Lukasz Piszczek. Then Piszczek conceded a penalty and Hulk scored emphatically from the spot after 69 minutes.

Again Lewandowski responded, this time scoring his side's fourth away goal two minutes later to leave Dortmund firmly in control for the second-leg of the round-of-16 tie on 19 March.

"We were close to optimal this evening," said the Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp. "It was a great game, no question."

After more than two months without competitive football, the home side buckled early on under Dortmund's pressure and struggled to keep up with their quick passing game.

The pressing tactics quickly paid off for the visiting side when Reus ran at the Zenit defence, staying on his feet when he might have been awarded a penalty, before Mkhitaryan swept the loose ball past Yuri Lodygin.

The visiting fans were still celebrating when Kevin Grosskreutz knocked Mkhitaryan's cross back for Reus to volley inside the right-hand post.

"We stayed compact. We wanted to pressure them to win back the ball. That was very important," said the Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl. "We brought the game in the right direction and made Zenit uncertain."

Zenit's attacking midfielder Andrey Arshavin went off with what looked like a hamstring injury in the 15th minute, and although last-gasp defending from their captain Nicolas Lombaerts helped prevent Lewandowski from running amok on several occasions, Zenit were generally let down by nervous defending throughout the game. And Anatoliy Tymoshchuk, who came on for Arshavin, was often guilty of giving the ball away cheaply in dangerous areas of the field.

Luciano Spalletti, Zenit's coach, said the tie is not yet decided and that his side still have a chance of going through. "In football there's always a chance of coming back," the Italian said.

"Everything depends on what kind of performance you deliver. It all depends on what you put into it and how much you're prepared to run. It all depends on your effort."

The first leg was played with the section normally occupied by Zenit's ultra fans closed as punishment for a mixture of racist behaviour, throwing of fireworks and crowd disturbances during a group stage loss at Austria Vienna in December. As a result the attendance was only 16,000.

There was also tight security in place around all areas of the Petrovsky Stadium to prevent any further trouble on the night.