Zenit St. Petersburg suffered a humiliating defeat on home soil by Borussia Dortmund, with little chance of progress into the next round of the Champions League. You can watch the highlights of the match here.

      Robert Lewandowski staged a rout of the Russian side in a game that looked a one-way street.

      Borussia capitalized on the mistakes that Zenit made in abundance and secured a ticket for the quarterfinals with a 4-2 away win.

      Zenit has been since lambasted by the sports commentators who have especially targeted its head coach Luciano Spalletti.

      Earlier, Russia-IC reported on the scandals in the leading Russian club, including rows between the manager and some of the key players, like Roman Shirokov.

      Previouslu, Spalletti fell out with another midfielder, Igor Denisov, who had to move to Anzhi Makhachkala, and later to Dynamo Moscow, after he demanded a pay rise.

      It all started after Gazprom, Zenit’s main sponsor, splurged 100 million euro on two foreign players, Hulk and Axel Witsel. Hulk’s salary was reported to be higher than those of Zenit’s old-timers like Shirokov, Denisov and Kerzhakov. The situation inside the team deteriorated, with the club finishing second in Premier League last season.

      Spalletti does not care about the record of Russian players, and may well oust most of the old guard from the team, says Alexander Bubnov, a columnist at Sovetsky Sport.

      Among other players who are having a rough time now are midfielder Vladimir Bystrov who will play in Anzhi Makhachkala on loan, defender Alexander Anyukov, replaced by Igor Smolnikov, and goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeyev, replaced by Yury Lodygin. Lodygin has so far failed to rise up to the expectations.

      Follow Russia to get more updates about Russian football and other sports. Check out our Facebook page for a day-to-day timeline of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games.