Zenit's long route to the final began with qualifying round wins over Slovakian side Zlaté Moravce and Belgium's Standard Liège. Zenit then negotiated a group stage of Everton, FC Nurnburg, AZ Alkmaar and Greek side AEL. Two-legged knockout round wins over some of Europes biggest clubs then followed, Villarreal, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich were all defeated by the St. Petersburg outfit as we reached the UEFA Cup final in England. 

At the City of Manchester Stadium and in front of 44,000 supporters, including 10,000 fans who'd made the trip from St. Petersbrug, Zenit beat Scotland's Glasgow Rangers 2-0 in the final.

The goals came in the second half, with the first scored by Igor Denisov from an Andrey Arshavin assist in the 72nd minute and Konstantin Zyryanov sealing the win in injury time to ensure the blue-white sky blues lifted the UEFA Cup for the first time.