Fiorentina won’t face former hero Luca Toni if they reach the UEFA Cup Final after Zenit St Petersburg unexpectedly demolished Bayern Munich.
The two sides squared off in the first of the evening’s semi-final second legs with the tie level at 1-1.
Despite the Russians having home advantage at the Petrovsky Stadium, Bayern were the favourites and have been commanding in the Bundesliga of late.
Toni, who came into the evening as the competition’s top scorer with 10 goals, returned from suspension, but the Germans were overwhelmed after seeing a Miroslav Klose effort cleared off the line within 90 seconds.
Zenit led 2-0 at half-time through prolific marksman Pavel Pogrebnyak's free-kick and midfielder Konstantin Zyryanov's superbly taken header.
Goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev produced some heroics to deny Toni, José Sosa and Bastien Schweinsteiger twice
Viktor Fayzulin put the tie beyond reasonable doubt with his head and Toni saw a yellow card after a frustrated push on Croatian defender Ivica Krizanac.
Pogrebnyak rubbed salt into the wound with a fourth, but he was left choking back tears after he picked up a dubious booking to rule himself out of the Final.
The Russians were beaten in the quarter-finals last year, but they will be in Manchester on May 14 to take on Fiorentina or Rangers.
Zenit 4-0 Bayern Munich (5-1 on agg.)
Scorers: Pogrebniak 4, 73, Zyrianov 39, Fayzulin 54
Zenit St Petersburg: Malafeev; Anyukov, Shirokov, Krizanac, Gorshkov; Tymoshchuk, Denisov (Ionov 90), Zyrianov, Dominguez (Lee Ho 88), Fayzulin; Pogrebniak
Bayern Munich: Kahn; Lahm, Lucio, Demichelis, Jansen (Lell 46); Van Bommel, Ze Roberto (Podolski 46), Ribery, Schweinsteiger; Toni, Klose (Sosa 62)
