Gent booked their place in the knockout stages of the Champions League for the first time in their history thanks to Danijel Milicevic's second-half winner at Gent Stadium this evening.
The Belgian champions, who are appearing in the Champions League for the first time, also stopped Zenit St Petersburg from becoming only the sixth team to win all six group games in the competition.
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The Belgian champions took the lead when Laurent Depoitre met Moses Simon's cross and guided a header beyond Yuri Lodigin in the Zenit goal on 18 minutes.
Just two minutes later Lodigin was called into action again when he had to get down low to keep out a Simon drive from range.
It was almost entirely one-way traffic in the first half, and twice more Lodigin had to step up to limit Gent's advantage, first keeping out Depoitre's effort after the Gent striker had pounced on Neto's weak back-pass.
Then, in the dying minutes of the first half, Lodigin acrobatically kept out Nana Asare's close-range effort right on the goalline.
Zenit's first effort on target didn't come until the 48th minute when Aleksandr Ryazantsev's powerful strike was pushed clear by Matz Sels.
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However, the chance kick-started the visitors, and they levelled the tie just after the hour mark when Artem Dzyuba fired home from the edge of the six-yard box after Sven Kums had failed to deal with a cross from the left.
Even that couldn't spoil the night for Gent, though, as they grabbed the win 12 minutes from time when Milicevic lashed home from Simon's cross.
The result means that Gent finish in second place in Group H, with Zenit also advancing in top spot.
Joe Sharratt
