Borussia Dortmund struck twice in the first five minutes and Robert Lewandowski grabbed a second-half double as last season’s Champions League runners-up won 4-2 at Zenit St Petersburg in their last 16, first-leg tie .

Dortmund got off to a flying start when Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Marco Reus scored two quickfire goals to stun Zenit, who were playing their first competitive game since a two-month winter break.

A dramatic second-half spell saw four goals in 14 minutes as Oleg Shatov and Hulk, with a penalty, scored for Zenit and Lewandowski quickly replied each time for the visitors.

As a result, Zenit, who are trying to reach the quarter-finals for the first time, have been left with an almost impossible task of having to score at least three goals in the return on 19 March.

The home side were quickly in trouble as Reus burst into the area and, although he stumbled, the ball ran kindly to Mkhitaryan and the Armenian put the ball past Yuri Lodygin. The Zenit goalkeeper had to pick the ball out of his net again 70 seconds later after Mkhitaryan burst down the right and found Kevin Grosskreutz, who laid the ball off for Reus to score with a clinical first-time finish.

Zenit were then penned back in their own half and their problems mounted when the former Arsenal midfielder Andrey Arshavin went off injured on 15 minutes and was replaced by Anatoliy Tymoshchuk.

Dortmund began the second half on the attack as their Poland striker Lewandowski had a powerful shot turned around the post by Lodygin.

The Russians reduced the deficit in the 57th minute with a scrambled goal when Shatov scored from the rebound after José Salomón Rondón had one effort headed away and then hit the post.

Lewandowski restored Dortmund’s two-goal advantage four minutes later after combining with his compatriot Lukasz Piszczek in a counter-attack down the right. Hulk pulled another back for the hosts with a debatable penalty in the 69th minute, awarded after Viktor Fayzulin had dribbled into the area and collided with Piszczek.

But Zenit then gifted Dortmund another goal as Tymoshchuk was dispossessed in his own half by Reus, who slipped the ball through for Lewandowski to score with a low, angled shot. (Reporting by Brian Homewood; editing by Ken Ferris)

• Zenit St Petersburg
• Borussia Dortmund
• Champions League
• European club football

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