Two goals from Pavel Pogrebniak and one each from Konstantin Zyryanov and Viktor Fayzulin ensured a 5-1 aggregate win that booked Zenit's ticket to the final at the City of Manchester Stadium on May 14.

"Full credit for the players for playing well right from the beginning," said Advocaat. "We knew it was going to be very difficult playing against one of the greatest teams in Europe.

"We didn't give them the opportunity to play football and we were very sharp mentally in this situation.

"Even players such as Bayern's start to get irritated and they didn't get the space they needed. I thought we were sharper than Bayern, and the tactical plan was not to let them play."

Advocaat was delighted Zenit's tireless closing down reduced the four-time European champions to long-ball tactics.

"I thought the way Bayern played today was quite simple," the former Holland coach continued.

"They relied a lot on the long ball and free-kicks and it just didn't work out for them.

"I thought we were the better team."

The night ended badly for two-goal hero Pogrebniak after he received a yellow card for an innocuous aerial challenge with Lucio that means the tournament's top scorer, with 11 goals, will not feature in the final.

Zenit were leading 3-0 at the time of Pogrebniak's booking but Advocaat defended his decision not to bring off his star striker with the tie seemingly in the bag.

"We still had to win. We saw at Getafe that [Bayern] can score three goals in 10 minutes," he said.

"The result is more important than any individual player, but I thought it was a very cheap yellow card from the referee."

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Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld was left to rue his team's missed opportunities over the two legs.

"We had the chance in the first minute (for Miroslav Klose) that we didn't take, then Zenit scored," Hitzfeld said.

"We then had a further chance from a free-kick which Luca Toni didn't take, and Zenit scored again.

"We wanted to score more than one goal [in the first leg]. We had good chances to win 2-1 but again we didn't take them.

"We just couldn't take our chances."

Hitzfeld denied the result was the worst of his career and played down the way in which Bayern were defeated.

"Defeat is defeat, whether it be 1-0 or 4-0," he said. "As a professional sportsman you have to learn to cope with defeat."

Hitzfeld suggested Bayern's recent successes at domestic level could have worked in Zenit's favour.

Bayern won the DFB-Pokal two weeks ago and as good as sealed the Bundesliga title with a 4-1 victory over Stuttgart at the weekend, leading Hitzfeld to conclude the Russian champions had more appetite for victory.

He said: "We won the DFB-Pokal recently and almost won the title at the weekend. It is possible that Zenit were hungrier than us.

"Zenit played the match of their lives and deserved to go through."

Hitzfeld added that he now expects Zenit to triumph in the final in Manchester.

"Zenit beat Bayern 4-0 - anybody who achieves that can be considered favourites."